NEW YORK, NY.- Bernarducci Meisel Gallery presents True Colors, a group exhibition featuring works by over a dozen of the gallery’s artists including Roberto Bernardi, Luigi Benedicenti, Ester Curini, David Eichenberg, Gabriele Grones, Gus Heinze, Park Hyung Jin, Cheryl Kelley, Stephen Knapp, Bernardo Torrens, Sharon Moody, Adam Normandin, Matthew Pierog, and Hubert de Lartigue. From the brightly painted marble statues of Classical Greek Sculpture to Yves Klein’s patented blue pigment, color has been an essential aspect of creative practice for centuries. The Gallery would like to use this exhibition as an opportunity to demonstrate how color continues to be at the forefront of contemporary painters’ practices to this day.
Some of the works use color in a way to tempt the viewer of appealing foods presented to them. Bernardi’s La Festa del Paese (2014) reveals a striking yellow background with brightly lit delicious candy. Lemon (2006), Pierog’s painting of a bright yellow lemon uses the black background to make the sour piece of fruit take center stage in the composition. In de Lartigue’s Big Kiss (2014), red lips pucker at the viewer in a highly detailed fashion and tempt the viewer in a different way.
Just as color has been at the forefront of painting, portraiture has been a way for painters to understand others for centuries. Eichenberg uses color in a way to express the alternative culture that his model is a part of in Brittany in Blue (2014). In Elisa (2013), Grones paints a portrait of a loved one surrounded in blue. Not only does this pallet choice make her skin glow but it also brings out the coolness in her eyes. Jin paints a bright blue sweater on his model in Jee Un (2014) that explodes against her auburn hair.
Several of the artists in this show use color to illuminate different types of machines. Heinze offers the viewer a warm pallet of orange in red machinery in his detailed painting Orange Magnito (2011). This warmth contradicts what emotions that are typically associated with harsh cold machinery. Kelley’s Bel Air with Pink (2013) highlights the luscious smooth and polished surface of this classic car with notes of pink, maroon, and green. Normandin explores the vibrancy of everyday trains in Hiding Out (2014).
Finally, there are some artists that use color to challenge traditional notions of painting such as in Siegel and Shuster's Action Comics No 1 June 1938 (2014). This particular comic is the first issue of Superman. The wrinkles in the paper, and the date listed on the front cover, peeking out from behind, are not the only indications of the age of the issue. The dialogue of the characters such as “...her yellow boyfriend” is another way that color has been addressed in our culture.
It is with this selection of works that one can see that color is more significant than ever before in painting. It is used as a form of expression, energy, and a way to replicate and further enhance the world that we live in.
