Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Exhibit: Alpha Art

Unfortunately, I am too poor to make my way into new york to take advantage of its seemingly endless expanse of galleries. Which is why I made my way to the Zimmerli, and this small art gallery called Alpha Art in downtown New Brunswick. I had no idea it existed until a friend told me about it, but I am glad I checked it out. The art featured in this gallery in some sense kind of relates to the Blocks of Color exhibit I saw in the Zimmerli, only in the sense that these also seemed a lot like watercolor paintings.
[Neptune's Revenge, 24 x 48" diptych, lacquer on panel, by John Hawaka]


Many of them are totally abstract paintings, with no real discernible pictoral representation of anything. However I really enjoyed the splash of colors across the paintings, some more than others, although I cannot really say exactly why I preferred some over others.

[Smokey Glen, 24 x 32", lacquer on pane, by John Hawaka]

Some of these paintings however did resemble familiar objects such as people or flowers, some more so than others.

[Blue Dahlia, 32 x 48", lacquer on panel, by John Hawaka]

Among all of these paintings were a few which featured a style drastically different from the rest, these in particular caught my eye as I walked around the gallery. They were like colored line drawings on a solid black background, and they almost seemed like neon lights glowing at night. The farther I stood from the painting, the more recognizable the paintings became.

[Girl with Cat, 36 x 48", acrylic, by John Hawaka]

2 comments:

  1. You could say more about the artist. Take a look at Marteha's post on the same show.

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  2. This is a great writeup. My name is Chris and I am from Alfa Art Gallery (where you saw this show).

    John is currently having another solo exhibition at the gallery and we would love to talk to you. Please email me if you get this: chris@alfaart.org.

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