Summerland : Alyssa di Edwardo
Mark Borghi is pleased to present Summerland, featuring works by contemporary Abstract Expressionist artist, Alyssa di Edwardo.
A contemporary Abstract Expressionist painter, Alyssa di Edwardo synthesizes landscapes into highly gestural compositions of strength and vulnerability. Her masterful use of color and intuitive palette have earned comparison to Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning and Cecily Brown. Di Edwardo’s powerful process based work finds itself through the act of painting and mediations on poetry, landscape and sense of place.
Like sunlight leaving an afternoon before the eruption of a storm, di Edwardo renders her paintings to the precipice of action. Gestural brushstrokes pull the viewer towards a psychological landscape perhaps making the work relatable in the realm of metaphor. She says of the work, “I only see my role as a painter as an instrument and guardian to be ruthless and resolute in what is true in that moment and to have no opposition.” By embracing process, the paintings reveal their own physicality and active momentum. The energetic force of the artist’s arm, gives way to bright and wondrous color. These painted fields of color rupture from the tumultuous into sensations of joy, if not harmony.
Strong brushstrokes coalesce, building structure from the inside out to unify a painting. Forms emerge from brushwork, scraping against the canvas and rich palette contrasts. Working for various lengths at a time on a single painting, moments find themselves quickly through wet on wet paint application while others take longer ranging from days to weeks to months at a time.
The exhibition includes paintings created over the last five years from three different bodies of work that the artist refers to as West Wind, Summerland, and Green Park. Di Edwardo uses the idea of Summerland as an entry way into her work. She reflects on its use in the mid 19th century Spiritualist movement regarding its relationship to the afterlife, which Andrew Jackson Davis explores in his work A Stellar Key to Summer Land (1867). Historical art and literary movements, and a variety of poets including Rumi, Rilke, Emerson, Goethe, E.E. Cummings and Robert Frost act as muse and entry point for the artist to begin a painting before process takes over. Alyssa di Edwardo notes of her own work how just as it is important to know when a painting is complete, it is equally important to know when a painting begins.
This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with Mark Borghi. Her work has been extensively exhibited and collected both domestically and abroad.