Nail Polish Works
In 1954, Ellsworth Kelly made a drawing in which he daubed an eyedropper of green ink at the top of a piece of paper before tipping it. The resulting drip became an automatic line drawing. Combining this idea with his admiration for Barnet Newman’s “Zip” paintings, Ingram developed a series of "Nail Polish Drawings" in which he pours carefully chosen colors of nail polish at the top of the surface and allows gravity to pull them downward. The polish references Ingram’s fascination of the cool, smooth transparent surfaces of the Los Angeles Finish Fetish movement of the 1960's. The sleek, often glittery lines created by the material unwittingly begin to define the space between and around them, whether executed on paper, canvas or in site-specific installations.