LOS ANGELES, CA.- Walter Maciel Gallery presents an exhibition of new mixed media paintings entitled Verge by Bay Area artist Freddy Chandra. This is Chandra’s first solo show in Los Angeles and his second exhibition with the gallery having been introduced in a group show entitled Pattern re-Defined in 2008.
In his new body of work, Chandra presents formal compositions made of multi-colored cast resin, graphite and plexiglass that are arranged in precise sequences. The rhythmic repeating, pairing and overlapping of the placement and disposition create a language rooted in abstract painting while exploring the temporal nature of the moving image. Embedded in the resin is a layer of plexiglass that reacts to different light sources to create a luminous surface. The effect accentuates the subtle vertical and horizontal shaded areas done using pigmented graphite. In some of the works, the areas of graphite are drawn over all of the resin panels dissecting through the boundary of each edge to create the complete pattern. In others, the grids of pigment are block by the physical parameters of the edges of nearby panels. A few of the elegant panels contain shades of black, gray and white void of any color.
These wall-based installations use the structure of filmic space to link the concrete and the atmospheric through a sequence of encounters. A visual patterning is displayed within notions of space, movement of light and color. The newest works include rows of resin rectangles stacked upon each other with uneven edges at varying widths. The physical presence of these works is immediately recognized with a peripheral focus on color and luminosity. These works prove the act of recognition, recollection and anticipation are driven by a desire to understand the present moment in the space between attentive perception and the marginal subconscious.
Chandra was recently awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant earlier this fall. He received an MFA in Studio Art from Mills College in Oakland where is currently a visiting artist professor and a BA in Architecture and Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley. Chandra was a recipient of an Artist-in-Residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2007 and was a semi-finalist for the Visions from the New California Award from the James Irvine Foundation in 2006. His work is included in several public and private collections and will be shown for the first time in Milan, Italy this year.
