NEW YORK, NY – Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature the original work of French-based artist David W. Whitfield in Reconstructing Reality. The exhibition opens on November 29, 2014 and continues until December 19, 2014. The opening reception takes place on the evening of December 4, at 6-8pm. Entrance is free and all are warmly welcomed to attend.
David W. Whitfield’s intriguing watercolors expertly use the medium to push the limits of the subject matter and vice versa. Whitfield appears infinitely flexible - he switched to gestural figure painting after many years of creating Surrealist art, and is exploring acrylic as well as working in watercolor. His boundless imagination is very present in his work, which buzzes with images-within-images, free association, and impossibly bright colors. Figures pile up on one another, superimposed like ghosts, each absorbed in their own vignette. They vary wildly in size and can stand on top of each other’s heads. Sometimes they seem to be part of one group, but at other times appear unrelated to one another. Whitfield exercises the transparency of the paint, which can be taken to delicate extremes, to build his compositions into stories of novelistic proportions. Where his figures overlay, they inform each other’s narrative. With an exaggerated palette, fine texture, and realistic detail, the paintings are both real and unreal.
Whitfield was born in England and today lives in France. He has exhibited in Scotland, Austria, France, Italy, the United States, and all around England, and is widely published.
Reconstructing Reality
Tamo | EBELGARLE | Christopher Breining | Michelle Cadreau | Mirjam Clement | DINO | Shams | Elisa Grion | Anders Hafsbrandt | Lise Zia | Julia Kappenman | Alejandra Larrea Koch | Virpi Leinonen | Varvara Liakounakou | Vivienne McDermott | Veronica Murphy | Ion Nicola | Geneviève Nicolas | Gerd Rautert | C. Selves | David W. Whitfield | Wei Xiong | Viktor Yaichnikov | Tanya Mayer
About the Exhibition
The variety that exists in the exhibition, Reconstructing Reality, creates a sense of exploration that cannot be denied. The viewer is able to go from the ephemeral to the figurative in just a few moments, only to be snapped back to an equally jarring duality between works of traditional embroidery and surreal landscapes. The contrast, though strong, is far from harsh, with each piece made entirely accessible by the expertise each artist puts into their own styles and works, allowing for the viewer to fully enjoy the full range of art on display.
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