Q&A by Brad Balfour
Ulterior Gallery
172 Attorney St.
New York, NY 10002
Irish-born and bred artist George Bolster does amazing work, imposing and impressive, intoxicating and hallucinogenic. Thanks to Ulterior Gallery, Bolster’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, opened Saturday, November 14, 2020, with a reception for the artist from 2 to 6 pm.
After several years of research at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, this New York-based multimedia artist has developed a body of work that suggests a guide for the future evolution of human beings. Through his research into the possible existence of extraterrestrial life forms, Bolster envisions a future for art and culture beyond borders, perhaps beyond the earth itself. The main pieces in this exhibition are three large textiles in which Bolster merges the visible and invisible onto the same sphere, challenging us to imagine the first step in working toward a radically different future.
For five days during the exhibition, from December 1 through 5, the entire gallery installation changed to be Ulterior and Bolster’s NADA Miami 2020 physical presentation. This short-term presentation was carefully planned to nestle within Bolster’s larger exhibition. For the fair’s five days, Bolster presented a wall-scale panoramic tapestry of Grand Stairs Escalante in Utah — an at-risk National Monument during the Trump regime. Bolster manipulated the weave of the tapestry using a décortiquée technique, stripping away specific colors and then reusing the excised material to re-embroider celestial bodies. That revealed the invisible universe overlapping the visible landscape. This restructuring shifted the Grand Stairs Escalante into an imagined new reality.
A multidisciplinary artist, Bolster has exhibited at numerous museums and galleries internationally. His work addresses ideas and belief systems from multiple perspectives, using a combination of science, art history, and science fiction to examine pressing societal and species-wide challenges. Bolster is the recipient of many residencies, including: Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris, France (2019); Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY (2017); SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA (2016-17); the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, FL (2013); and the Firestation Residency, Dublin, Ireland (2012).
Q: What got you started painting, and has it been as fulfilling as you thought?
GB: I began painting as a teenager, and trained as a painter which began at Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork. I was hugely influenced by the landscape painting collection in the Crawford Gallery which really inspired my initial interest in painting growing up. Then I went on to London to do a degree and MA there at what is now known at the University of the Arts London. So, even though I make work in film, photography, tapestry and drawing, I always return to painting. Painting is really satisfying as you can cover the entire surface, continually change it and paint over it when necessary. It is a forgiving medium for those who are never satisfied, and continually push the piece forward. It is immensely satisfying.
Q: How does being Irish enhance or add to the work you do?
GB: I think of being Irish and having left there to try and find opportunities abroad before the Celtic Tiger happened. You have sympathy for people in similar predicaments who try to find lives outside of the countries they grew up in and loved. So, you have this legacy of migration which informs your life and how you view people humanely. I think that is the single greatest gift being Irish has bestowed on me, that and humility.
I think the landscape in Ireland is second to none, I feel homesick every time I see someone posting their walk there. There is an Irish sensibility I think you have instinctively, growing up surrounded by such grandeur.
I grew up in Cobh, and our view was over the bay, so being by the sea and having access to the 
breathtaking landscape throughout Ireland, was so important to my appreciation for nature and my use of landscape now in my work. When I go home now, it is to Glengarriff in West Cork, I spend as much time there as I possibly can. West Cork is one of the most beautiful places ever.
Q: How do you start a painting what is the process?
GB: It really depends on the project I am working on. For the pieces in Tearing at the Fabric of Your Reality, my solo show at Ulterior Gallery, I began with images from my residency at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, which also involved research from my time at NASA Ames. The actual images for the show were shot at the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek in California in 2016.
I take a long time to get from initial research to when I begin the final works. So, your question is very apt, because the images that look like paintings actually began as photographs, then I manipulated them massively to the point where they look exactly like paintings. This involves actually remaking them in tapestry and then further manipulating them by hand with hand applied thread, wool and paint.
Q: How do you decide the size of a painting what determines it?
GB: Usually, the size boils down to the initial image I either photograph or draw in situ. Once I begin working on it, I often change the scale several times, until it looks right to me. A lot of artists begin with the size, they stretch the canvas and that is the decision made, but I have never been able to follow that convention. Composition is so important to my work in painting, drawing and film, but film has pre-existing constraints, so I like to experiment as much as possible on the physical objects. It is also the reason I have never made series, the three large works are the first I have made of exactly the same size, but that is purely by accident. Some pieces end up being the entire room as installations or in this case there are large and small pieces, each involving multiple techniques.
Q: You have a unique color palette how did you come up with it what makes it comfortable for 
you?
GB: The color palette for this exhibition was inspired by the discovery of the earth-like planet Kepler 16b, the planet is circumbinary, which means it orbits two suns. It was discovered by Laurence Doyle when he worked on the Kepler mission for NASA. He told me that because of the two suns, when it rains it causes two intersecting rainbows to occur. So, those rainbows and the discovery of over 4000 planets by this and subsequent missions became the palette for the entire exhibition. Our cultural reality of thinking we are alone is being challenged by constancy of new planets being made visible; there is an estimated 100-400 billion planets in the Milky Way alone. The colors also aim to reflect the fantastical quality of this extraordinary and hard to comprehend information.
The theme of the exhibition aims to highlight the plight of humanity, as one where we need to find ways to deal compassionately with each other and evolve to find a sustainable future together. If we are the only life, then shouldn’t we have more respect for human beings.
One of the most wonderful events that happened while I was at the residency at SETI, was a tour of the night sky with astronomer Jill Tarter who was played in the film Contact by Jodie Foster, and whose life the book of the same name by Carl Sagan was based on. As she said “We are made out of stardust. The iron in the hemoglobin molecules in the blood in your right hand came from a star that blew up eight billion years ago. The iron in your left hand came from another star. We are the laws of chemistry and physics as they have played out here on Earth and we are now learning that planets are as common as stars. Most stars, as it turns out now, will have planets.” And further to her words, there is a substantial possibility they will also harbor life.
Q: Is it hard to let go of your works when they get sold?
GB: Well, sometimes it is, but often when people buy them, they tend to invite me over to see them in situ in their homes or galleries, and it often develops into a friendship. I have very few collectors who only buy one piece, and it is great to have conversations with people as the work changes and evolves. So, there are actually very few of my works that are out of my life completely unless they are with international collectors who don’t travel, and art collectors do tend to travel a lot.