CONTINUOUS COMPOUNDING: Jerry Carniglia
FEBRUARY 1 - MARCH 28, 2013
Jerry Carniglia, Soul Blind, 2011 oil on canvas 63 x 81 inches
Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to present Continuous Compounding, a solo exhibition of work by Jerry Carniglia featuring a selection of oil paintings on canvas and paper. The exhibition title, referring to Jacques Derrida’s concept of the present as inexorably linked to memory of the past and expectation of the future, also recalls the artist’s experience making the work. As much as every instant of the painter’s process requires his in-the-moment decision-making, the resulting works are multi-layered compilations of action over time—gestures and counter-gestures that amplify or obscure one another.
In his large-scale paintings on canvas, monumental non-representational forms hover in pictorial space and imply a potent energy force such as a tidal wave, avalanche, or cosmic flash. The dynamic forms and rich palettes of burnt umber, gold and maroon create an epic quality, like that in works by Titian, one of Carniglia’s influences, but without reference to specific mythic or religious subjects. Although rooted in Abstract Expressionism, Carniglia’s work could be described as contemporary Baroque, with its exaggerated sense of motion, grandeur and implied drama. In what he describes as our post-existential era, Carniglia’s act of painting is a search for meaning, not through religion, myth or history, and not as a personal rationalization in a meaningless world, but meaning that may be found in the unseen and otherwise unarticulated structures that underlie all of existence.
About the Artist
Jerry Carniglia was born in San Francisco in 1946. He received an MFA from UC Berkeley in 1993. He is the recipient of the Eisner and Phelan Prizes, a Gerbode Foundation Award and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. His works are in the collections of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum and the Berkeley Art Museum. This is Carniglia’s third exhibition at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary.
Jerry Carniglia Statement Jerry Carniglia CV
