NEW YORK, NY – Coleman Burke Gallery is pleased to present Constructed Spirits, a dual exhibition featuring paintings on canvas by artists Guy Stanley Philoche and Suzanne LaFleur. The exhibition will be on view to the public from June 3 through July 17, 2010.
The exhibition marks the release of new paintings by both artists. As a sneak preview to his new Game Series, Philoche will be revealing pieces that reconsider iconic imagery and forms associated with traditional games. LaFleur will unveil a new suite of large-scale paintings displaying recent meditations on the subliminal phenomenon of memory and how it shapes our subconscious.
Constructed Spirits sets out to examine the vibrant exchange between two contemporary artists producing work charged with an intuitive reaction to their physical and emotional surroundings. The paintings of Philoche and LaFleur emphatically tread the relationship between the subconscious and the aesthetics of reality, rather than defining their subjects, they suggest them. As viewers, we are invited to reevaluate our concept of ‘visual experience’ as formal canons of color, light, and line are placed on edge to articulate a (re)construction of reality, rather than the typical ‘documentary’ duplication of it. For both artists, the constructed spirit is a deeper reality hidden behind the visible plane; a reality that is more ‘real’ than the visible plane itself. Viewers can experience these ‘constructed spirits’ through the poetic apparitions that inspired their creation.
Suzanne LaFleur produces work known for its painterly quality and strong use of color, but also for the raw and impulsive sensory experience it provides. LaFleur’s studies are at their core abstract and neo-expressionist. The sequences of wavering forms and gestural impulses attract a natural rhythm of composition as if to contribute to the generational influences of Joan Mitchell and Cecily Brown. Her explorations of gestural abstract language draw from memory and the subconscious, the most recent paintings disclose brazen investigations in color, brushstroke, and abstract form to communicate captivating impressions of place and time. Intertwined in a kinetic energy, regions on each canvas shift light and color to create a multilayered stream of consciousness.
A perfect counterpart to LaFleur’s dynamic compositions, Guy Stanley Philoche’s Untitled Series demonstrates a controlled layering of lustrous color contained within symmetrically balanced geometric fields. Though influenced by the slightly older and trailblazing abstract investigations of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, Philoche has contributed a generational response to and redirection of color-field art while retaining his own signature style. Intentionally primitive in his composition, Philoche delineates cross-shaped structural grids with a thin dark line in attempt to bring consistency and order to an otherwise chaotic environment. The pictorial effect is spiritually meditative, his quiet geometry serves as portals to ethereal and ephemeral worlds emanating a sense of calm and beauty on the viewer. One of Philoche’s most powerful works on display bears a dark, heavy, flesh-like surface. The gravity of this glossy oil slick brings it amorphously closer to the edge dripping and disintegrating against a beaten pale background to cast a somber, reflective beauty.
BIO:
Guy Stanley Philoche is a native Port-au-Prince, Haitian who immigrated with this family to the United States in 1980. After attending art school in New Haven, Connecticut, he moved to New York where he currently lives and works. His work has been featured at Christies Auction House and is included in over 14 corporate collections (Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, Barclay Investments) as well as the private collections of George Clooney and Uma Thurman.
Suzanne LaFleur is a New York based painter. For 20 years she lived intermittently between Lebanon, Kuwait, Cannes, and Monaco before returning back to New York City in 2008. Her paintings have been exhibited in many galleries, diplomatic embassies and exhibition halls throughout Europe and Asia. Her work is also in the personal collections of numerous royal families of the Middle East. The exhibition at Coleman Burke Gallery marks the Chelsea debut for the rising artist.
ABOUT THE GALLERY:
Founded in 2009, Coleman Burke Gallery New York is a contemporary gallery featuring both emerging and established artists working in a variety of mediums and approaches. Coleman Burke Gallery New York is affiliated with Coleman Burke Gallery Brunswick, a site-specific project space in the Fort Andross mill in Brunswick, Maine, and Coleman Burke Gallery Portland, a storefront window installation space at Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine.
For press related inquiries or more information please contact our director:
Nicholas Alexander
Director
COLEMAN BURKE GALLERY
638 West 28th Street, New York, NY 10001
917.677.7825
nicholas@colemanburke.com
