Color: Visible Window
Artists: Kim Manfredi, Valerie Suter, Amanda Bylone
Gong Art Gallery's exhibition titled "Color: Visible Windows" explores the complex nature of desire through a series of paintings that emanate sensuality and evoke a yearning within the viewer.
Kim Manfredi's artistic journey is deeply rooted in the traditions of abstract expressionism and the pattern and decoration movement. By combining chance operations and intentional marks, the artist skillfully seduces the audience, providing a space for an uninhibited gaze and exploration of desire.
The paintings in this collection are created using a combination of aerosol and oil techniques. The artist employs a rich palette consisting of vibrant hot pinks, earthy greens, deep blacks, browns, and whites. This anthropomorphized color scheme alludes to outer-space, renaissance murals, and the human body, while also hinting at themes of sexual curiosity and play.
In Manfredi's perspective, desire is not associated with shame, neurosis, or suffering. Instead, it is a source of illumination and empowerment. The paintings boldly embrace protuberance, holes, and mounds, asserting their presence and inviting the viewer into secret worlds where desires are laid bare. The artwork explores themes of yearning, lust, and curiosity, creating an atmosphere that is both pent-up and sexually charged.
As paint drips and bleeds on the canvas, chance enters the artistic process, leaving its residue and enhancing the mystery and spirituality inherent in the work. This infusion of the unknown adds a sense of transcendence, reminiscent of the painting systems employed by revered artists such as Agnes Martin and Agnes Pelton. While each artist employs different methods, they both seek to transcend the boundaries of the visible world and tap into the realm of spirituality.
Through a combination of chance operations, ambiguous imagery referencing the human body, and a transcendent innate desire, Kim Manfredi's paintings in the "Color: Visible Windows" exhibition offer a thought-provoking and captivating exploration of the complexities of desire. Join us at Gong Art Gallery to immerse yourself in these powerful works and experience the transformative nature of art.
