To This World I Must Give In. The artist composes his complex paintings and works on paper with collages of vintage fabrics, ornithological prints, gold leaf, acrylic, oil and fluorescent-patterned grounds. His discrete yet overarching narrative juxtaposes the nostalgic with the new, creating dynamic puzzles.
To This World I Must Give In
cherrydelosreyes is proud to present the Los Angeles solo debut of new paintings on linen and paper by Antonio Adriano Puleo.
Antonio Adriano Puleo composes his complex, harmonious paintings and works on paper with collages of vintage fabrics, ornithological prints, gold leaf, acrylic, oil and fluorescent-patterned grounds. His discrete yet overarching narrative juxtaposes the nostalgic with the new, creating dynamic emotional and visual puzzles.
The figures in Puleo’s paintings are either headless, as in Protect Your Neck (I Feel My Head Going Down Again) or “block heads.†They almost always have a divine type of presence due to graphic beams of light penetrating apertures in the block heads. In other paintings, such as Good Things Come To Those Who Wait, this light forms a beam connecting a pair of birds. Without traditional signifiers for emotion, such as the face, and by relying on deliberate composition and keen connection to color, Puleo manages to emote a myriad of experiences creating an undeniable magnetism.
He has been referred to as a “classical modernist†by Peter Frank in the LA Weekly, Dec 3-9, 2004. The surrealistic tone and simplified architectural references in some of the works recall De Chirico paintings. Puleo has also drawn inspiration from the likes of John McCracken, Henri Matisse, Donald Baechler, Philip Guston and J. J. Audubon as well as Indian miniature paintings and Asian scrolls. His mixed and re-mastered vocabulary is a take-notice new visual language for the marriage of collage and painting. All in all, Antonio Adriano Puleo intricately creates poetic moments as romantic as they are rigorous.
Puleo received his MFA from UCLA in 2003. He has exhibited at Lucas Schoormans Gallery, New York, The Flash Art Museum, Trevi, Italy and Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland. His work was most recently seen at the ~scope Miami and NADA art fairs in December.
The exhibition opens February 18, 2005
Opening reception is Saturday, February 19, 2005 7 - 9pm
Private previews available the week prior-call to schedule a viewing
In the image: Antonio Adriano Puleo, tell me you didn't lay here, 2004. Mixed media on paper, 30 x 22 inches.
For further information and images contact Mary Leigh Cherry at 310.398.7404
cherrydelosreyes
12611 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90066
Gallery Hours: Friday – Sunday 11am- 6pm or by appointment