Continuing through November 29, 2015
Visiting Alexander Yulish’s show “Immovable Thoughts” can be an overwhelming experience, but in a positive sense. People’s inner lives as revealed in a public space is all too frequently trivial in focus or expression. The New York-born artist says, “Art is about intimacy. I use the brush like a blowtorch to melt away the surface and express what lies below,” and he backs it up. Inspired by people and events from the artist’s life in the past year, his contorted subjects with their twisted features, which at times recall the works of Picasso and Francis Bacon, tell us about their worries, habits, sexuality, solitude, isolation and, yes, their pets, always presented inside their homes, implying confinement.
The artist carries this out in exuberant colors and a combination of fine lines and thick black brushstrokes that are loosely rendered. In “I Appear Missing,” a man sits on a chair with folded legs. His wrists are touching with his hands positioned in opposite directions. The man’s eyes are painted on different levels. His mouth is off center. The asymmetry creates a sense of chaos and disharmony. On the upper right the painted letters "ACE Gallery 2015” appear, signed by Yulish underneath it. This is probably the most biographical painting in the show and could be interpreted as expressing the painter’s stress or distress about the show's opening.
Published Courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2015
