Face Dreams

 

A solo show of recent multi-media works 

By Ray DiCecco

 

chashama 461 Gallery
461 West 126th Street

(between Amsterdam & Morningside Aves.)

New York, NY

 

September 20 - October 2, 2012

 

Opening Reception:

Saturday, September 22, 3pm - 6pm

 

Gallery Hours:

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 1 - 5pm

Saturday & Sunday: 1 - 6pm

Monday & Tuesday: closed

Or by appointment: 

347 624 0297

dicecco@mac.com

 

I refer to my newest multi-media works as photo-paintings.  Portraiture for the digital age.  I use photography to render the details of a face, then employ paint mediums to take the image to a another level, which is more an emotional response to the person rather than an accurate portrayal of her.  I want the face to take on the quality of dreams or memories, as when we're left with the dilemma of translating an image that's been stripped of its source.  The portrait is a fact... and a fiction.  Part illusion of the photograph, part reality of paint.  I work with digital photography, acrylics and polymer mediums.  I'm fascinated by the conceptual nature of transparency, where the layering of images and paint becomes more than the sum of its parts.  The layers set up ambiguities, allowing for a constant shifting of interpretation.  In this recent series I print digital images on various photographic papers, which are mounted on canvas.  Then I apply acrylic mediums.  Incorporating painting on top of the images creates tensions, conflicts, and a host of emotional responses to the sitter's various personas; psychological veils, so to speak, that reveal multiple aspects of each subject.  At other times the portraits refer back to the landscape.  These are topographical faces.  The acrylic medium might exist as a barrier, but with cracks in its surface.  Here it serves a dual purpose: to permit a look through the subject, exposing her vulnerabilities; and at the same time, to function as something impervious... protecting her. 
 

In many faces I use the concept of double exposure in an exploration of the dichotomies that create personality.  None of us has only one personality; instead, we are each made up of a myriad of them.  An evolving process, each of us adapts to different situations by configuring a unique personality that suits each particular occasion.  We continuously create and project new versions of who we believe we are.

 

Bio:

DiCecco has always been preoccupied with the themes of landscape, figure or portrait.  Throughout his career he has experimented with virtually every painting medium, often developing new techniques with traditional materials.  His imagery challenges the human psyche, transporting its viewers to sensuous locales, as well as to the more inhospitable recesses of the subconscious.  
 

Recently he has incorporated digital photography in his work, deconstructing the medium... challenging the very idea of photography or painting by synthesizing the two in these hybrids works.  From an earlier series of crosses to the madonna/child paintings to the most recent portraits, DiCecco presents a classical aesthetic twisted by contemporary light.  From the internal dialogues of landscape and figure to the emotionally powered portraits, DiCecco makes paintings that confront us.

 

http://www.diceccopaintings.com/