Sunday, April 28, 2013

"Essence" Paintings by Alessandro Del Pero


On May 16th  Tazza Gallery in NYC presents “Essence,” new paintings by Italian artist Alessandro Del Pero.
The show draws from two series of works that the artist has created while living and painting in Harlem. The first series features what appears to be his atelier. Del Pero’s background in architecture allows him to create and command the space on his canvas with ease. Here the light appears to be adventitious, as if coming directly from the viewer’s realm and it somehow propels us, uninvited, into his private space and into the scene. What do we find there?  Props and objects scattered in a seemingly random manner. Observe with care and you’ll discover that there is nothing random about the objects or about anything in these compelling compositions. These pictures are personal windows into the artist’s psyche and each can be seen and read as a self-portrait; they can be enigmatic but they are always intriguing. 



For his Heads series, a subject Del Pero has been exploring since he started painting, there is a freedom of line and form that almost transfigures them into abstraction. The heads seem to be in a state of auto transformation. They appear fleshy, tangible but at the same time possessed by that intrinsic quality that can only be called, Essence.

Commenting on the show, Tazza Gallery Director Denis Arguedas said: 

“I love Alessandro’s ability to render without pretentions. He exorcises his canvas of any preconceptions of aesthetics, conventional standards of beauty, traditional subjects and rules. Things are presented as they are and even when they conform to their nature there is in them, always, a second identity. He gives everything to the observer but we cannot help to see that there is something else. It takes us a moment to comprehend that the missing element is, perhaps, ourselves, the viewer. His paintings are never static. We approach them and they grab us, pulling us in, always amusing us like sirens under the allure of the drama created by shadows, the contour of a hanging rope or the frustration and struggle of a crashed piece of paper."
Tazza Gallery 547W 27th Street 533 NYC 10001


www.tazzagallery.com



Saturday, April 27, 2013

"Sui Generis" Paintings by John Selburg


Currently at Tazza Gallery in Chelsea is John Selburg’s second NYC exhibition called "Sui Generis."
The title comes from the Latin expression for “Of it’s own kind, unique” an expression that well describes each one of the artist’s creations.
 John Selburg is a painter, writer and teacher from Peoria, IL.


Detail


“Sui Generis” features beings that are the product of the artist’s imagination. Each picture is a unique work of art made with pen, and sometimes, watercolor and marker. These creatures, the Emissaries, as the artist calls them, serve as a bridge between the concrete and the fantastic. They aim to reawaken our capacity to use our imagination just as we did when we were children. These beings serve as dignified messengers, “they are intended to usher us into a realm where imagination plays a vital roll in emancipating us from a herd mentality.”

Detail

Detail

Commenting on the show Tazza Gallery Director, D.Arguedas said:

"The works for this new show build on what John did for his first solo show, ‘The Emissaries of the Afterglow,’ which was an important success for John and for the Gallery. In ‘Sui Generis’ the works are larger in scale and bolder. This scale allows more complexity in form and an even richer color palette- all without sacrificing the high level of detail and craftsmanship we're used to seeing in John's work."



Detail