Wednesday, November 21, 2012


Alexander Kroll  "a bird is not an ornithologist"  76"x67"  2012 oil on linen
http://www.jamesharrisgallery.com               http://www.cb1gallery.com

Controlled exuberance, deft paint handeling, performative, open ended are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind when viewing the new paintings of Alesander Kroll at CB1 gallery in downtown LA. There is a toughness to this group of paintings that is lacking in much of the current work being exhibited in galleries around town. These paintings were hard fought and the final result gives us that evidence. Kroll builds on the vocabulary of abstract painting and in doing so has found an authentic voice. His expansive fields of color are loosely held together with an ambiguous structure the sets up an unusual dialectic. Raw linen interacts with  impasto and wash to become portals to a new way of seeing what painting can be.

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