John Moore

That the glass would melt in heat
That the water would freeze in cold
Shows that the object is merely a state
One of many between two poles. So
In the metaphysical, there are these poles…

—Wallace Stevens, “The Glass of Water” 

John Moore’s paintings appear at first like a glass of water, possessing a “matter-of-fact” realism and transparency that belie the illusory, transcendent qualities of paint which he masterfully employs in his quietly brimming compositions. Refractions of light and image—a cityscape here, reflected in bodies of water over there—and atmospheric skylines inspire awe, while aging architectures record human agency and decay. Granular edges meet gauzy, liquid strokes, bringing clarity and obfuscation.

In Windowscapes, Moore’s poignant images exist between the concrete and the metaphysical, reveling in the amorphous qualities of glass as material and surface. Like Wallace Stevens, Moore’s poetics follow a lineage of artists and writers exploring the mysticism of glass. In Blue Moon (2025), a crystal ball with a nebulous blue cloud stirring inside sits straightforwardly on an industrial windowsill; its gridded panes frame the arched windows of another era on the building across the street. Orb and pane become portals, past and future coalescing in one view. In other works, deftly painted swirls and strokes of color comprise glass bricks stacked and rigid while simultaneously liquid. 

For over sixty years, Moore has refined an uncanny ability to not just look but look through— constructing scenes that transport, rather than merely represent. The mundane is imbued with a sense of romance, the everyday verges on the miraculous. In scenes from Philadelphia to Maine (where the artist has resided for the past sixteen years, until recently), time circulates in varied rhythms and palettes—a McDonald’s reflected in the window of a train station in Rockland or the view of an old Art Deco movie theater seen through the modern mullions of an apartment window. In Dawning (2025), the slow deterioration of peeling paint and orange rust converge with the ephemeral movement of cerulean clouds. 

Locks Gallery is pleased to open this exhibition of Moore’s recent paintings that reflect his enduring interest in the window as both frame and subject. The exhibition also features a landmark painting of a Philadelphia skyline from 1977 titled May Day. 

John Moore (b. 1941) was the Gutman Professor of Fine Arts in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as chair of the department for ten years from 1999-2009. He previously headed the graduate painting program at Boston University, and taught at the Tyler School of Art of Temple University and the University of California, Berkeley. Moore completed his BFA from Washington University and received an MFA from Yale University in 1968. He was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and spent much of his career in Philadelphia. Moore was elected to the National Academy of Design and has been honored several times by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His paintings are included in major collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and many others. The artist has exhibited with the gallery since 1976.