Alison Van Pelt
dal 3/3/2002 al 13/4/2002
Segnalato da
3/3/2002
Alison Van Pelt
Chac-Mool Contemporary, Los Angeles
Recent Paintings. In the exhibition of 40 paintings on paper and two oils on canvas, Van Pelt continues exploring the art of painting as a reference to representation as well as a reference to the borders between representation and the abstract. In these works, images almost photographic in their intensity seemingly appear like ghostly remnants of the real.
In her first Los Angeles exhibition in two years, Alison Van Pelt will present new and recent paintings at Chac-Mool Gallery.
In the exhibition of 40 paintings on paper and two oils on canvas, Van Pelt continues exploring the art of painting as a reference to representation as well as a reference to the borders between representation and the abstract. In one large canvas, "Red Flight No. 2," she
reveals her awareness of the raw power of color by covering the canvas with coats of pure red, and then subtly allowing a transparent
lightness of cut diagonally across the space, while a black shadow emerges horzontally across the bottom. Through these insights, Van
Pelt stops time, momentarily halting the viewer by focusing sight on the perceived imagined image which is real.
In other works Van Pelt, like her contemporary Gerhard Richter and Agnes Martin, returns to the image as a thing in and of itself by
working in blacks, whites and shadowy grays. In these works, images almost photographic in their intensity seemingly appear like ghostly
remnants of the real. It is as if Van Pelt captures the shadowy realities that lie within the half light that exists between the values of dark
and light. That mysterious world becomes the center of her universe, and through these paintings she makes the viewer aware of
perceptual values often shut off from our awareness. Ethereal and elusive, these paintings are also seductive and sensual. In them,
opposites merge, reminding that what is hidden is often more real than what the eye apparently sees.
Director: Esthella Provas
Image: Alison Van Pelt, "Untitled Painting on Paper #200594", oil on paper, 10 x 7", 2001.
Chac Mool Gallery is located in West Hollywood at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Almont Drive. The Gallery is open Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 6pm and Saturday from 11am to 5pm and by appointment. For further information, please contact the Gallery at 310.550.6792.