Parts of an Immense Whole (8/13/21 - 9/25/21_
STATEMENT
In both of the Joseph Fiore paintings that I chose, there is a quiet, impermanent coexistence between people and the land. In one painting, a barn is set in a misty clearing and defies its own “barn-ness” by being painted so thinly that it seems to be made up of the same gauzy mass as the neighboring trees. To me, this represents a found balance in our cohabitation with nature. Compositionally, the painting is anchored by a pthalo-cool parallelogram at the dead center. This strange pulse of geometry appeals to me and is the kind of surprise that I try to let happen in my own work.
The second Fiore painting has the viewer looking out over an evergreen studded valley with the individual trees spaced equidistantly. I saw this as a tree farm but it could also be a naturally occurring landscape. Either way, it speaks to the human tendency to coax a ranked order on our surroundings or to look for one even when it doesn't exist. My paintings in this show are about this same shifting correspondence between the artificial and the natural. Inspired by Fiore, I aim to emulate the calm moments in this constantly moving, give-and-take relationship.