Aaron Curry: Paintings at the Michael Werner Gallery

Los Angeles-based Aaron Curry, born in San Antonio, Texas, is currently exhibiting at the Michael Werner Gallery. This is the first of such devoted to paintings, showcasing a new direction in his work: in this exhibition there are exercises from his sketchbook that feed into his larger paintings.

The beautiful gallery is the perfect place for an artist who suggests illegal substances through his Dali-esque meets cubism portrayal of the body and mind. Curry’s not unusual choice of medium here is canvas, though sculpture is still represented in this format.

The artist uses vivid, alien, contrasting colours to represent the brain, human bodies and figures of men. The use of an audacious palette allows the artist to experiment with abundant flat tones and create depth and vibrancy in basic shapes. The contemporary use of synthetic cubism breaks the idea of flatness throughout the canvas, representing realistic elements and therefore ambiguously rejecting the representation of different points of view. Curry’s art refers back to his sculptural work, adding deception and multiplicity.

Curry is able to entice the viewer with very detailed, hyper-realistic drops of water. The themes that are presented throughout his paintings portay hopelessness, thirst and tears. We can also find the influence of science fiction, comic books and illustrations from popculture magazines in Curry’s paintings, which then become full of visual and metaphoric abstractions. A loud and bold exhibition.

Rafael Cunha

Aaron Curry: Paintings is at the Michael Werner Gallery until 9^th August 2014. For further information visit the gallery’s website here.