Does every picture tell a story?
For Connecticut artist Keith Campagna, "what you see is what you get." That is the reason he titled the show that opens chez Grace tomorrow "Non-fiction." In twenty-one unframed paintings on paper he evokes leaves, flowers, the sky at night, the heart of a storm.
One wall is given over to a series that is a tribute to Japan after the recent disasters there. A collector of his work who lives in Basel calls his new work shown here "transformational," because he has gone from working on a huge scale to these smaller and more meditative works. He has brought the outside in, and gone inside, "pulling in, taking the essence, really compressing into a small space so many layers of nature."
Indeed, in the show here in June 2008 entitled "Passion and Elegance," Keith's big paintings wowed the viewers with their scale and intense color. Irving Solero's finely detailed photographs of couture masterpieces from the collection of Fashion Institute of Tecbnology in New York lent counterpoint elegance.
"Non-fiction," then, is the real, unadulterated story, the unvarnished truth, the un-sugar-coated facts that will not be glossed over but rather confronted, lived through, dealt with, mourned if necessary, and transformed. This joyful reunion of friends and family for his show at this spring time of year in the sunniest April in Paris in a decade celebrates new life, new love and new understanding of our reality.
Pictured: "Lullabye for a Rainy Night," 2011, acrylic on acid-free watercolor paper, 22" x 30." Price on request.
2 comments:
This is a wonderfully evocative painting. Showing the unvarnished facts allows the viewer a unique experience, the opportunity to create a personal fiction.
I like the colors a lot, très lumineux. And the textured paper is a nice idea too.
I'm here throught Tom's blog.
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