Francesco Longenecker "Paintings"

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poster for Francesco Longenecker "Paintings"

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In his exhibition entitled Paintings, Francesco Longenecker presents new medium and large-scale abstract works that are a complex synthesis of references as diverse as abstract masterpieces, street art, and flea market finds. Equally varied are the artist’s experimentations with paint application, surface qualities, and intuitive development of shapes. Through his search for distortion and disguise, Longenecker plumbs the tension among these visual disjunctives.

While one recognizes in his paintings the art historical references to de Kooning, Diebenkorn, Gorky, Hofmann, Mitchell, and early Rothko, Longenecker places his work in a contemporary context by infusing it with his interest in the physicality of graffiti – more specifically the struggle of layering that he has noticed when large blocks of paint that attempt to match the original wall color are used to cover over graffiti marks. In Canopy (2008), a landscape appears to be the final layer, seeming to block our view of earlier layers of paint. Yet an ambiguity arises as to whether the landscape is obstructing our view of what lies below or is in fact being blocked by what our eye may have fooled us into thinking are earlier passages. Longenecker moves beyond this area of inquiry by replicating the effects of color separation in early printing processes and the discoloration resulting from fading that is found in vintage stereoscopic slides of landscapes. These traits are observable in Field (2008), which also exhibits a camouflage pattern akin to the effect created by a double exposure in photography.

[Image: Francesco Longenecker "Canopy" (2008) oil on canvas, 79” x 108” ]

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Schedule

from October 11, 2008 to November 08, 2008

Opening Reception on 2008-10-11 from 18:00 to 20:00

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