New York - Paintings

Located in NY

Located at Center44 222 east 44th street NY

Steven Colucci’s iconoclastic approach to performance and the visual arts have not only long blurred the boundaries between these disciplines, but have challenged its most basic assumptions. The title of this show references a most rudimentary dance move --the plié --and our assumptions of what to expect in relation to this. Also the suggestion that we can simply press a button and a preconceived outcome will be courteously delivered --a form of prefabricated belief in itself. Steven Colucci’s artwork turns such basic assumptions on their heads. Finding early inspiration in the New York school of abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock with his action painting, and then further by his professor --a then young Vito Acconci while studying at the School of Visual Arts, Steven Colucci went from exploring the raw existentialist experimentation of New York’s early painting and performance scenes, to investigating the other end of the spectrum --the rigorously measured and controlled disciplines of pantomime and ballet; studying in Paris under the tutelage of world-famous Marcelle Marceau, and engaging with the concepts of dramatic movement pioneer and intellectual Etienne Decroux. Colucci has explained the difference between the extremes of pantomime and dance as being that pantomime forces movement via an internal capacity --movement directed inward to the core of one’s self --a source requiring extreme mental and physical control. Dance by contrast is an external expression; likewise requiring great precision, although instead an extension of self or sentiment that projects outwardly. While such historical ‘movement’ disciplines serve as foundation blocks for Steven’s artistic explorations, it is the realm in between that he is best known for his contributions --an experimental movement and performance art that simultaneously honors, yet defiantly refutes tradition; rejecting a compartmentalization regarding art and movement, yet incorporating its elements into his own brand of experimental pastiche. Colucci’s performance works manifest as eerily candy-coated and familiar, yet incorporate unexpected jags of the uncanny throughout, exploiting a sort of coulrophobia in the viewer; an exploration of a cumulative artifice that binds human nature against its darker tendencies; highlighting traditions of artifice itself - the fabricated systemologies that necessitate compartmentalization in the first place. It is evident in Steven Colucci’s paintings that he has established a uniquely distinctive pictorial vocabulary; a strong allusion to --or moreso an extension of --his performance works. Colucci’s paintings depict a sort of kinetic spectrum, or as he refers to them “a technical expression of physicality and movement”. Whereas the French performance and visual artist Yves Klein used the human body as a “paint brush” to demarcate his paintings and thereby signify a residue of performance, Colucci’s utilization of nonsensical numbers and number sequences taken from dance scores, as well as heat- induced image abstraction depicting traces of movement likewise inform his vocabulary. In the strand of the choreographed, yet incorporating moments of chance, Colucci’s paintings represent an over arching structure; a rhythm of being and state, yet detail erratic moments --moments that denote a certain frailty --the edge of human stamina. Colucci’s paintings dually represent a form of gestural abstraction --and also the reverse of this --a unique anthropomorphization of varying states of movement – that sometimes present as a temperature induced color field, at others are juxtapositions of movement and depictions of physical gestural images themselves. Colucci’s use of vernacular and found materials such as cardboard evoke his mastery of set design, and also reference a sort of collective experience of urbanity and the ephemeral. Such contradictions seem to permeate not only Steven Colucci’s artwork, but also are reflected in his person – one who grew up in New York’s Bronx during a zeitgeist moment in visual and performing arts in the 1960s – one who shifts with ease from happenings and experiments in New York City, to his meticulously choreographed megaproductions at Lincoln Center or starring in the Paris ballet...

Wind, Ocean, Sun by Balcomb Greene painted in 1963. Signed on the front titled and dated on the reverse. Paintings of the Montauk coast by Balcomb Greene are few and far between. Thi...

While visually maintaining a balance of chaos and control, Aurel K. Basedow’s paintings become a conversation between the rigid technical handling of resin, his chosen media, and the gestural possibilities of chromatic layering. Basedow most closely shares a kinship with 20th century painters like Mark Rothko, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, and Hermann Nitsch, whose paintings convey emotion and energy through physical and conceptual expression rather than realistic depiction or predetermined outcomes. Employing various mediums, the artist creates a vigorous composition of geometric lines and expressive brush strokes, with each gesture building on the previous one, separated by layers of clear resin. The use of multiple pigments and pouring techniques can create a fluid, dynamic appearance, with the colors mixing and blending together in unpredictable ways. Basedow leaves the edges of his paintings unrefined, revealing a visual history of each layered application. The use of resin also allows Basedow to incorporate unusual objects...

While visually maintaining a balance of chaos and control, Aurel K. Basedow’s paintings become a conversation between the rigid technical handling of resin, his chosen media, and the gestural possibilities of chromatic layering. Basedow most closely shares a kinship with 20th century painters like Mark Rothko, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, and Hermann Nitsch, whose paintings convey emotion and energy through physical and conceptual expression rather than realistic depiction or predetermined outcomes. Employing various mediums, the artist creates a vigorous composition of geometric lines and expressive brush strokes, with each gesture building on the previous one, separated by layers of clear resin. The use of multiple pigments and pouring techniques can create a fluid, dynamic appearance, with the colors mixing and blending together in unpredictable ways. Basedow leaves the edges of his paintings unrefined, revealing a visual history of each layered application. The use of resin also allows Basedow to incorporate unusual objects...

While visually maintaining a balance of chaos and control, Aurel K. Basedow’s paintings become a conversation between the rigid technical handling of resin, his chosen media, and the gestural possibilities of chromatic layering. Basedow most closely shares a kinship with 20th century painters like Mark Rothko, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, and Hermann Nitsch, whose paintings convey emotion and energy through physical and conceptual expression rather than realistic depiction or predetermined outcomes. Employing various mediums, the artist creates a vigorous composition of geometric lines and expressive brush strokes, with each gesture building on the previous one, separated by layers of clear resin. The use of multiple pigments and pouring techniques can create a fluid, dynamic appearance, with the colors mixing and blending together in unpredictable ways. Basedow leaves the edges of his paintings unrefined, revealing a visual history of each layered application. The use of resin also allows Basedow to incorporate unusual objects...

Using 1500 clothes pins to combine painting and sculpture to a dramatic affect is what artist Annie Morris is most famed for. Each peg is individually pai...

Large original painting of a woman carrying two martini glasses by Lee Ames (1921-2011). This painting is on a board. Great item for a collector.

A scene from the 12th century Heike wars. Ruler Taira Shigehira ordered an attack on those who opposed his rule. During the battle, Nanto Temple, in Nara, was burned to the ground. T...

Very early painting of a gold arbor with morning glories, the mulberry paper almost appears polished. Please see close-up photos to show staining from use over the many years (on the...

Ink with accents of gold on paper. By Kodama Sanrei (1915-2002) exhibited at the 1968 Nippu-ten. About the Artist: Kodama Sanrei was born in Nagano prefecture and studied under the a...

Large, signed, framed Livio de Simone original hand painted flower on cotton fabric. Made in Italy. Nice vibrant and bold colors. Livio de Simone - D...

Large, Signed Livio de Simone original hand painted geometric shaped pattern on cotton fabric. Made in Italy. Livio de Simone, designer-artist and cre...

This exquisite glazed ceramic charger features a picture of a reclining nude, a clever recreation of a western subject in new terms appropriate to a work situated in its time and pla...

Rurak’s Portland white paintings have a Minimalist confidence. Simple white boards are impulsively etched with groups of lines and forms familiar in his lexicon of imagery. The etchi...

Rurak’s Portland White paintings have a minimalist confidence. Simple white boards are impulsively etched with groups of lines and forms familiar in his lexicon of imagery. The etchi...

Brooklyn based Stefan Rurak’s unique vision and process stems from a diverse range of media, ranging from things as conventional as drawing and painting to performance art. “The work...

Stefan Rurak’s credenza diptych typifies his unique approach to design. Rurak has translated his truism, denouncing the distinction between art and design, into a literal representat...

Through a layering of hand-dyed sand, the mirror consists of gradient tones and textures suggesting Patagonian glaciers breaking over water. The granules are stratified with nuance a...

Through a layering of hand-dyed sand, the mirror consists of gradient tones and textures suggesting Patagonian glaciers breaking over water. The granules are stratified with nuance a...

Karel Appel, Dutch, 1921-2006, biomorphic figures, watercolor and graphite, circa 1971. Provenance: painted for and personally given to the superintendent of Appel's apartment buildi...

Rare Gouache on Paper painting executed by world renowned artist and draftsman Richard Rummell, depicting the interior of the famed J.H. Williams & Co drop forging factory, crazy det...

Rare Gouache on Paper painting executed by world renowned artist and draftsman Richard Rummell, depicting the exterior of the famed J.H.Williams & Co drop forging factory in Brooklyn...

Japanese Two Panel Screen: Flowering Lilies on the Beach with Dancing Crabs. Taisho (1912-1926) period painting of spider lilies, tiger lilies, and morning glories in bloom at the ...

A beautiful and intricate interplay of colors with wonderful movement. Provenance: Collection of the Bank of Oklahoma (as pictured).