Holding I 1974

Jonathan Grant Meader made this geometric screenprint, ‘Holding I’, conjuring up a surreal landscape behind a lavender-colored door. Imagine Meader, carefully layering each hue to construct this otherworldly scene. The precise lines and evenly distributed colors suggest a thoughtful process—a deliberate layering of geometric shapes and flat color fields. The open door invites us to step into a dreamscape of geometric forms under a starry night, where pyramids sit serenely on a vibrant green plane, beneath an aqua sky patterned with triangles. The crispness reminds me of the hard-edged abstraction of artists like Agnes Martin, yet there's a playful, almost psychedelic quality that sets it apart. It’s as if Meader is proposing an alternative reality, one where the boundaries between the familiar and the fantastical blur, and the viewer gets to choose what’s on the other side. This reminds me that artists build upon each other’s visions, transforming and expanding the possibilities of what painting—and the worlds it creates—can be.