An exploration of color, light and gesture are the core of Carolanna Parlato’s new paintings on view through Saturday at Elizabeth Harris. The dense geometric spaces, sloppy translucency, and highly saturated color of previous work have been gently nudged aside by opaque pastel color, the introduction of modeling paste for thickness, and the airy aesthetic of “incompleteness.”
[Image at top: Carolanna Parlato, a delicate balance, 2015, acrylic and molding paste, on canvas, 64 x 84 inches.]
One of the hardest things for a painter to do is to stop painting, and in this new series, Parlato manages to step away while the action is still fresh and before the canvas is fully covered with paint. Missteps are easily covered with a new layer of white paint. Agitation and anxiety seem to have disappeared. The new beginnings, both hopeful and sentimental, that these paintings suggest are a pleasure to contemplate. Spring is just around the corner, right?
“Carolanna Parlato: a delicate balance,” Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Chelsea, New York, NY. Through February 13, 2016.
Related posts:
G�nther F�rg’s late work
Helen Frankenthaler: More profound than lyric
The beautiful and bizarre, organic and toxic at Elizabeth Harris (2010)
Parlato and Saccoccio: retooling gestural abstraction(2008)
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