PABLO CONTRISCIANI:
SYNTHESIS
January 8 – February 9, 2010
Daniela Montana, Curator
ARCH GALLERY, Miami
305-644-7500
info [at] ArchGallery.us
http://www.ArchGallery.us
PABLO CONTRISCIANI: SYNTHESIS is a visceral manifestation of a collective experience. The work arises from bold gestural movements, dispersing bright paints, which are leaked, squeezed, compressed and hurled across the canvas, creating two-dimensional forms devoid of perspective, yet imbued with a monumental architectural quality. The resulting delirium of color, contour, texture, motion and emotion has the spirit and urgency of our time, while timeless.
“In an era when his contemporaries are celebrated for their appropriation of iconic arts imagery, Contrisciani, in tune with this resurgence, goes beyond a reassessment of specific fine arts icons and instead re-contextualizes aspects of salient art theories. He is not a dogmatic proponent of the Thesis behind those movements, nor is he creating a rupture with an Antithesis, but rather Contrisciani has created SYNTHESIS, new a body of work, which is derivative of select prior traditions advocating progressive explorations of color and line, as well as, freedom of form and expression.
As we near the centennial anniversary of the birth of Abstract Expressionism, Contrisciani reminds us that the tradition born of chaos at the turn of the last century is still pertinent at the turn of this century, today. His work is replete with inferences to the inner spiritual resonance of Wassily Kandinsky’s pure painting, and Jackson Pollack’s action painting, as well as, the cross sensory synaesthetic effect of Albert Ohelen.
As an Argentine artist, Contrisciani has been influenced by his cultural progenitors. The Informalismo Argentino of Mario Pucciarelli and Kenneth Kemble with their impulsive ruptures in traditional composition and use of discarded objects may have inspired the found vinyl adverts that serve as the background for several Contrisciani paintings. Likewise, his anarchy of canvas and frenzied rhythmic dispersal of color are reminiscent of his professor Luis Felipe Noe, while Contrisciani’s uncensored application of uplifting luminescent colors is certainly reflective of life in Miami. The erratic swirls of fine lines in neon evoke those of Lucio Fontana’s grand staircase in Struttura al Neon. Although the forms in Movinetto Spazialle are free to breath, similar structures in SYNTHESIS inhabit a more densely informed environ in tempo with today’s generation, while in tune with Spazialismo’s ability to project subconscious emotions that transcend from the canvas into the realm of reality.
Through SYNTHESIS, Contrisciani has reclaimed the language of his predecessors and enriched his own. In Untitled 52, vigorous brushwork creates expanses of deep reds, rich yellows and blasts of green neon, intercepted by hot pink and violent black contours with palpable tension. The dynamic manner in which such stress coexists with an undeniable primordial joy, unveils such candid emotions, that the spectator is disarmed.
SYNTHESIS is an experimentation in pure abstraction in which, as with jazz, the artist departs from conventional norms, improvising as he stretches beyond the confines of comfort to the edges of harmony and cohesion. The act of painting intuitively, challenging what has been learned by rote, occurs in a mysterious realm in which the artist surrenders to a playful game of push and pull driven by the spontaneous joy of superimposing optical elements to create a tactile surface saturated with non-calculated chromatic formations. Such whimsy requires the vulnerability to explore a child-like curiosity and a strong academic foundation upon which to take risks –Contrisciani posses both.” (1)
ARCH GALLERY reflects Miami’s dynamic place in the arts, as both a magnet for emerging artists and a gateway for established Latin American masters. Arch builds upon the foundations set during the twenty years of exhibitions presented in its exquisite loft in NOHO, NYC, when the gallery directed by Daniela Montana, served as a maverick in the Latino Art Movement. Arch artists include: Emma Pineiro, Raul Farco, Elizabeth Grajales, Laura Marquez, Juan Mele and Manuel Pardo.
(1) Montana, Daniela, Americanos, Ms, Arch Press, Miami, 2009.
