Paint gets a bum rap in many corners of the contemporary art world. An unprecedentedly wide variety of artistic platforms are available in the 21st century. So the art form dating back to prehistoric cave paintings is often perceived as a medium with nothing new to offer.
Exhibits at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London and Contemporary Art Galleries at University of Connecticut in Storrs challenge that belief, shining a light on contemporary artists taking painting in imaginative directions.
Aldrich
“There are so many other things going on in visual arts, and people get distracted by that. But painting still holds a central position,” said Richard Klein, exhibitions director at the Aldrich. “A new generation is trying to reinvent painting, as all generations try to reinvent it.”
One of those reinventors is Steve DiBenedetto, whose visionary oils-on-canvas are one of four exhibits opening Nov. 15 at the Aldrich. The four shows — the others are work by Hayal Pozanti, Julia Rommel and Ruth Root —- mark the first time in 20 years the museum has dedicated all of its galleries to paintings.
DiBenedetto’s influences include surrealism, psychedelia, speculative fiction, sci-fi movies. Recurring images of helicopters, octopuses, cathedral-like architecture and spiraling labyrinths, but almost never humans, can be seen in his 36 wildly colorful visions of apocalyptic chaos. Buildings teeter on the edge of destruction and helicopters and octopi fight to the death, an ultimate battle of nature and technology. “There is a sense of a world out of control. It reflects a turmoil. It reflects the world we live in. These are dark and troubled times,” Klein said.
The out-of-control vibe is enhanced by often confusing phrases woven in among the imagery, such as “Indications are such that compliance negates inclusion.” “You can’t really compare him with other working today,” Klein said. “There is a complexity, intensity, sheer visual overload.”
Whereas DiBenedetto thrives in chaos, Pozanti is highly structured, but in a way only Pozanti can fully understand. Pozanti, a native of Turkey, invented her own 31-character alphabet, which she calls “Instant Paradise.” She has never taught anyone else her language. She uses the characters to spell out words in her large-scale works and names the paintings after the numbers they spell out. Curator Amy Smith-Stewart said that Pozanti’s work is more than just a personal musing. It’s also a commentary on what makes man and nature superior to artificial intelligence.
“One Hundred” reflects on the 100 billion neurons in the brain and the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. “One Hundred Twenty Two” counts the average number of dreams humans have each month. “Eighteen” reflects the number of different smiles humans are capable of. A video in the gallery records Pozanti speaking her language, giving an eerie, outer-space vibe to the gallery.
Root’s exhibit emphasizes large-scale works that reject the rectangular canvas, the tradition of using just paint on a canvas and the idea that her palette must include the color blue. Root hangs randomly shaped panels of painted plexiglass from large swatches of fabric with the use of folds, notches and grommets. She designs the fabric herself, using images from her previous works and bits and pieces of her influences. Hanging across the gallery from each other, Root’s paintings reference each other in their recurring patterns.
Rommel’s goal is to get rid of the evidence of her hand in the monochromatic abstractions she creates. She stretches the canvas, paints on it, then restretches it, over and over, until the art that remains is not only paint but also staple holes, folds, wrinkles. She gives her enigmatic pieces intriguing names – “Two Italians, Six Lifeguards,” “Moroccan Boyfriend,” “Pre-Baby” – that challenge the viewer to stand in front of the works and see what Rommel sees.
Lyman Allyn
Michael DesRosiers’ acrylic-on-board paintings emphasize intense color relationships and the movement of the artist’s hand across the surface. When viewed from the front, his asymmetrical works, which he calls “quantum abstractions,” show an accumulation of a wide variety of brush strokes and textures, in patterns that change from one end of the canvas to the other.
However, to fully appreciate DesRosiers’ years-long process, one must look at them from a different angle. On the sides of his thick, unframed canvases are what DesRosiers calls “the archaeological edges,” a collection of drips that show all the colors, in all the layers, that DesRosiers went through before deciding that the painting was done.
He likens his edges to the development of human character. “At any given moment, we are that edge. We are the accumulation of all of our experiences. … That’s our history. Everybody has one,” said DesRosiers, of Lyme. “You may want to hide it and frame it, but it’s yours. You have an edge, too.”
The edges often show colors that are hard to see in the finished work. “Breaking Cobalt,” an energetic variety of blues and textures, started out red. “Cadmium Surge” originated in shades of blue but ended as a two-tone work: red with a yellow grid pattern on top and a yellow explosion below. The only remaining patches of blue can be seen at the corners, and on that edge.
DesRosier’s show is the inaugural exhibit in a new contemporary art series. All the “Near :: New” shows will be in the Glassenberg Gallery on the first floor of the museum best known for its early American works. DesRosiers is happy to start the series because he recalls seeing contemporary art as a boy. “My mother took me to a contemporary art exhibit in Austin [Texas],” he said. “It was work by Louise Nevelson. It changed the course of my life.”
UConn
Barry Rosenberg, curator of UConn Contemporary Art Galleries, said the name of his exhibit, “Painting @ the Very Edge of Art” has a dual meaning. The abstract works reflect change occurring in the art world — “away from figuration and storytelling and going back to abstraction,” he said — and many defy the edge of the canvas to become fusions of painting and sculpture.
The most compelling works in the nine-artist how were created by Donald Moffett. On thick boards pierced with holes like Swiss cheese, paint is applied with a cake-decorating tool. His works look like hanging chunks of holey shag rugs in vivid colors such as spring green and royal blue.
Another artist whose works straddle the line between painting and sculpture is Dianna Molzan, who painted a black stair-step pattern on a brown-and-white canvas folded over the picture’s frame. Jason Middlebrook, too, uses an imaginative painting surface, a cross-section of a tree painted with gold. Cordy Ryman constructs canvases with blocks to create geometric patterns with seemingly random painting patterns.
Zak Prekop paints geographically inspired patterns on both sides of a thin canvas. Guillermo Pfaff’s “Inside Out” works also play with thin painting surface. He paints the stretcher bars, while a gauzy-thin canvas allows the grids of color to be seen through. Julia Dault does the opposite, painting on a canvas and then covering up her painting with a leather grid, giving the effect of looking through windows at an artwork.
PAINTING IN FOUR TAKES: STEVE DIBENEDETTO, HAYAL POZANTI, JULIA ROMMEL and RUTH ROOT will be at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 258 Main St. in Ridgefield, from Nov. 15 to April 3. The opening reception is Nov. 15 from 2 to 5 p.m. aldrichart.org.
CUED BY COLOR: PAINTINGS AND MIXED MEDIA WORK BY MICHAEL DESROSIERS is at Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams St. in New London, until Jan. 31. lymanallyn.org.
PAINTING @ THE VERY EDGE OF ART is at University of Connecticut Contemporary Art Galleries, 830 Bolton Road, Storrs, until Dec. 4. contemporaryartgalleries.uconn.edu.
