On top of the emerging art world

Top Emerging Artist Eric LoPresti!!

Tracy Frost From Art2Bank, The Art of Investment writes:
Eric LoPresti at Like The Spice, Brooklyn, USA, May 16th - Jun 8th

Posted on May 21, 2008 at 11:21 AM.
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* Top Emerging Artists

Born in 1971, Eric LoPresti grew up in the remote southeastern desert of Washington State. He received his BA in Cognitive Science (University of Rochester) in 1993, and his MFA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in 2002.

LoPresti's work has been exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Jan Larson Fine Art and Miami University. He is the recipient of the Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation Award and the 2005 Miami Young Painters, William and Dorothy Yeck Purchase Award.

A pre show fierce review!

ARTmostfierce was invited to an studio visit for emerging artist Eric LoPresti sponsored by the auction house Phillips de Pury.

And this is what he had to say:

Eric's paintings are combination of oil and airbrush on linen .Most of his paintings are manifested as diptychs in which one side has a complete abstract expression vs. a quite crafted , insightful and detailed visual that makes us think of the some of the world most current events.
A good example of it is the second diptych painting (Untitled) in which an image from Iraq can be as familiar as a neighborhood somewhere in Florida or Los Angeles in the moment of being hit by a missile. There is a lot of reflexion, insinuation and hidden messages in his paintings but, I want you to be the judge so please, go to the opening tomorrow night and see for yourself . For more info please see links below or contact Marisa Sage at Like The Spice Gallery. Don't miss it!

Check out the blog!

Housequake

Couldn't make it to There Where? last weekend? You missed a meal as well designed as the work of our current artists Ross Racine and Peter Feigenbaum. Oh, look, there they are now!






There There runs until May 11th. Also artist Ross Racine will be in the gallery this Saturday, May 10th, so make plans to stop in and meet him! He's very nice and always says nice things about you.

On The Road Again

We like it here in the gallery, but sometimes you just need to go out and get your hands dirty. That's why it was so nice to visit the harsh and brutal world of Eric LoPresti's studio on May 1st. The esteemed Phillips Art Expert was on hand to take some photos, and we had many special guests (who found the the event neither harsh nor brutal, if the truth be known). Head over and take a look at the photos, and then make plans to come see Eric LoPresti: Force Against Force on May 16th.

Installation shots taken by Blogger Hrag Vartanian

A wide view and some close ups of the Feigenbaum diorama at Williamsburg's Like the Spice gallery seen on Hrag's blog and flicker photo stream!

Shameless Plug

The wonderful blog phillipsartexpert has put up a short profile of Eric LoPresti, and we're very glad! Force Against Force opens May 16th. Come join us, won't you?

Force Against Force: Eric LoPresti

Force Against Force: Eric LoPresti
May 16th – June 8th 2008
Opening Reception Friday May 16th 6:30-10:00pm

Like The Spice is proud to present Force Against Force featuring Eric LoPresti’s eloquent diptychs composed of photorealistic renderings and airbrushed gradients. Each binary pairing, executed in either graphite or oil and acrylic, alludes to uncontrollable forces and the universality of conflict and catastrophic loss. The precisely realized images of destruction, danger and chaos on one panel are set against the contemplative psychological space of color field painting, thereby combining two schools of painting historically seen as antagonistic to each other.

Based on dramatic and sometimes harrowing photographs of contemporary battlegrounds in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as sites of danger and turmoil --- shark infested waters, melting icebergs and refugee camps --- these paintings and drawings express the inadequacy of human perception to grasp the vast, shapeless complexities of powerful forces.

Opposing each landscape is an abstract gradient, where multiple colors or tones fade into one another in atmospheric, emotionally charged fields. With no indication of scale and lacking any solid form, the gradients provide open space into which the viewer can project their reactions and emotions.

About the diptychs, “I think of them as visual equations, where the resulting experience is very different than the sum of the parts. Each side transforms the other by its proximity,” says Eric.

Born in 1971, Eric LoPresti grew up in the remote desert of southeastern Washington State. He received his BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester in 1993, and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2002. His work has been exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Jan Larson Fine Art and Miami University. He is the recipient of the Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation Award and the 2005 Miami Young Painters, William and Dorothy Yeck Purchase Award. This will be his first solo show at Like the Spice.