| KEITH
PERELLI - b. 1968 MONOTYPES and OILS with MIXED MEDIA
One of New Orleans' most
written and talked about new talents, Keith Perelli has presented his paintings
in multiple solo exhibitions at the d.o.c.s. gallery in New Orleans, and
elsewhere in group shows in New York NY, Innsbruck Austria, Milan
Italy, Cincinnati OH and Prague, Czechoslovakia. The artist is a long time
resident of New Orleans where he works and teaches drawing and painting
at the New Orleans center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA).
Perelli works with great
facility, and never an awkward moment, as he composes his subjects imbued
with such introspection and self awareness that the viewer feels compelled
to stand back and refocus again and again. Always engaging, the artists
insists on conviction and courage as he plays ingenious visual havoc
across his canvases and works on large and small scale paper.
IN
HIS OWN WORDS:
These
monotypes are unique paintings that are created with printmaking inks and
transferred onto high quality papers through a traditional intaglio press.
All images have been painted and manipulated on Plexiglas and then pressed
onto archival Arches 88 paper. Each of these works is a unique painting.
Some pieces in the series are created from multiple images that were collaged
together as one work. They are further manipulated and refined through
technical drawing media and some additional gouache and acrylic paints.
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I wanted
to create quiet solemn images that communicate both the physical and mental
emotions of the figure. Integral to the gesture or poses of the figure
and their rather inward or distracted gazes, was the figures relationship
to nature and the environment or interiors. Most pieces are constructed
of a variety of elements that I either created with hand made collage on
the plate and through the addition of natural pressed plants from my garden.
The
pressed images were manipulated to compliment human physiology and bone
structure. I collected plants, street trash, and used actual plants from
my garden to suggest both the healing attributes of nature and to also
disconnect from most things natural. I sometimes work from observation
to record light and color on the figure and plant materials, however most
of the series was expressed through the imagined figures and spaces. |
