NYAB Event - Lee Kaloidis and Robert Szot “10 Days in June”

Lee Kaloidis and Robert Szot “10 Days in June”

The Muriel Guépin Gallery

This event has ended.

Muriel Guépin Gallery presents, Ten Days in June, a group exhibit of two artists who celebrate and push the importance of painting with gestural mark making. Both use dense pools of vibrant paint and subtle impasto to convey their unique personal touch. They use the paint as the vehicle for expression in their pieces, emphasizing the importance of interplay between the artist and their materials.

Robert Szot understands and lives through his paint, not being intimidated by the qualities of it, but rather finding his home in it. He embraces natural and flowing forms as an extension of his self-expression, almost as a stream of consciousness. Finding inspiration in music and sentimentality, his pieces are undeniably human in nature. His compositions seem to burst past their canvas boundaries with vibrancy and expression, mimicking natural and man-made structures. Every piece has its own palette, creating time capsules with unique moods for the viewer to get lost in. In one painting you are transported to a warm sunrise on Broadway, while in another you are looking out of a Parisian window as it rains. Szot relies on his paint to tell his narrative, rather than using illustrative storytelling to convey his ideas.

Lee Kaloidis’ paintings emphasize the movement of the artist, tracking his gestures and allowing them to carry the viewers’ eye around the canvas. Each mark made is present on the timeline of the piece. He works in unison with his paint allowing it to speak for itself, letting it drip, but occasionally taking control again by flipping the canvas so his drips defy gravity. In doing this, he allows an inside look into his creative process, entrusting his viewers with his gestural storytelling. Sometimes his paintbrushes carry multiple colors, emphasizing the trail of his brushstroke, which in turn emphasizes the history behind his pieces. Kalloidis allows for his mark making to become his personage, and thus the embodiment of himself within his work.

Painting is a unique and remarkable art form, and both Szot and Kalloidis understand that the key lies in the qualities of the paint itself. The artists’ hand is essential to the success of their paintings, and the paint allows for their imprint to be carried and frozen in time.