Alex Weinstein: Westward Paintings

Alex Weinstein Westward Paintings

Alex Weinstein Westward Paintings

For Us (Study), Westward Painting 2 2014-15 Oil on panel 24 x 24 inches

Change, Westward Painting 13 2015 Diptych; oil on panel 48 x 24 inches

Going Home, Westward Painting 19 2015 Oil on panel 48 x 48 inches

Stay, Westward Painting 18 2015 Oil on panel 48 x 48 inches

So Long I Waited For This 2014-15 Diptych; oil on panel 48 x 24 inches

Alex Weinstein’s current paintings are based on the evening light and its movement across the Pacific Ocean. These paintings comply with his reductive style of painting, where most, if not all, decipherable content has been removed from the canvas. Within this series of intersecting sky and seascape paintings, there are no clouds, no birds or planes to disrupt the view. What remains is a subtle shift in color where one hue fades into another, just as the light from the setting sun wanes on the horizon as the day draws to a close.

Formally, some of the paintings are construed as a type of false monochrome, since at first glance they appear to be one solid color. Yet, upon closer inspection the chromatic shifts in the work become visible and the sense of light and atmosphere disrupts a monochromatic reading of the work.

In addition to the solitary canvases, Weinstein revisits the vertical diptych composition of the paintings in which he obscures the line between representation and abstraction. Singularly, each panel is an abstract color field painting; however, when placed together as a diptych, the ocean and sky imagery crystallize, grounding the work in the realm of realism.

Ultimately, and in keeping with his artistic output, the imagery in Westward Paintings is informed by Weinstein’s time spent in the ocean as an avid surfer. He states that his paintings speak to the immersive state of being in and around the ocean. In this body of work he invokes the visual cues of gazing across the horizon, the texture of the ocean waves as one ascends up to the surface and the interplay between the light and the water. Although Weinstein’s work is thought to be very subtle and subdued in color and sparse in visual content, the paintings imply a rich atmospheric space with a temperature and climate all their own. In his own words Weinstein suggests, “This work seeks to present visual space as a resting place, or vista for the viewers’ interpretive associations to collect inside.”

Us, Here, Westward Painting 1 2015 Oil on panel 48 x 48 inches

Halcyon Days 2014-15 Diptych: oil on panel 96 x 60 inches

Going Up (Up, Up), Westward Painting 20 2015 Oil on panel 48 x 48 inches

This Space (Ours), Westward Painting 7 2015 Oil on canvas 84 x 84 inches

Head in the Clouds, Westward Painting 5 2015 Oil on panel 60 x 60 inches

Alex Weinstein was born in 1970 and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He studied English and Visual Art at Brown University, where he obtained Honors in Creative Writing and attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Weinstein lived briefly in New York City, where he worked as an illustrator, before moving to Brittany, France. In Brittany, Weinstein dedicated himself to painting. At the same time, he opened a small gallery, Swell, hosting American artists at the renowned Pont Aven School of Art. In 1997, he moved to Venice, California.

Entranced by the horizon line along the Pacific and a surfer’s relationship with the water, Weinstein saw the pastoral landscapes he had painted in the North of France morph into a series of seascapes. Influenced greatly by the work of the early Romantics and Impressionists, including Caspar David Friedrich, Monet and J.W.M. Turner, the paintings were evocative and immersive, engulfing the viewer in shifting weather, mood and times of day.

Weinstein’s paintings retain a strong sense of romanticism, while moving towards abstraction. His diptychs explore the sea’s ephemeral character by contrasting one view of it with another; the works feature stacked, glowing meditations on color and light that recall Mark Rothko’s binary paintings. Blending the line between representation and Abstract Expressionism, these diptychs feature scenery that is no longer immediately apparent, and each panel instead relies upon the other for definition as an ocean landscape.

His sculptural works are visually slices of the ocean surface. Full of texture, drama, and weight, these glossy fiberglass sculptures give a nod to the Los Angeles movement of Finish Fetish, while continuing Weinstein’s play with light, movement and the ever-changing nature of the ocean.

Patience, Westward Painting 9 2014 Diptych: oil on panel 48 x 24 inches

Thought Terrain, Westward Painting 11 2015 Oil on panel 60 x 60 inches

To A Quiet Place 2015 Diptych: oil on panel 48 x 24 inches

Archive, Westward Painting 10 2015 Oil on panel 60 x 60 inches

A Place For Us, Westward Painting 14 2014 Diptych: oil on panel 48 x 24 inches

See You Tomorrow, Westward Painting 4 2015 Oil on panel 48 x 48 inches

The View From Here, Westward Painting 3 2015 Diptych: oil on panel 48 x 24 inches

Head in the Clouds (Again), Westward Painting 6 2015 Oil on panel 60 x 60 inches

Alex Weinstein 1970 Born Education Brown University, 1992 BA Visual Arts; BA Honors Creative Writing Selected Solo Exhibitions 2015 Leslie Sacks Contemporary, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA 2013 Leslie Sacks Contemporary, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA 2011 Leslie Sacks Contemporary, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA 2009 Second Floor, Marfa TX 2008 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA 2007 The Surf Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA: 2006 Berman Turner Project, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA 2005 Berman Turner Projects, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA 2004 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA 2003-2000 Strong, Electric Ave, Venice, CA Selected Group Exhibitions 2015 LA | SF, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA Manhattan Beach Art Center, Manhattan Beach, CA California Cool 2015 Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA Mana, Villa Di Donato, Naples, ITALY This is Not Surf art, Surfers Heritage Foundation, San Clemente, CA Venice Art Walk, Venice Family Clinic, Venice, CA 2014 Mana Film Exhibition, MOAH Museum of Art History, Lancaster CA Inner City Arts Benefit Exhibition, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica CA Greenroom Festival, Yokohama, JAPAN Public sculpture Commission for City of Manhattan Beach, CA Art 2014, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach CA Venice Art Walk, Venice CA West is the Best, Library of Arts, Paris, FRANCE WITB, Providence, Guethary, FRANCE WITB, Galerie S. Bensimon, Paris, FRANCE 2013 Mana, Gallery Meld, Kona Hawaii Art 2013, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach CA Venice Art Walk, Venice CA 2012 Art 2012, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach CA Venice Art Walk, Venice CA 2011 Artwalk NY Benefit for Coalition for the Homeless, New York, NY Auction 2011, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA Cinema 15, AR4T, Laguna Beach, CA Venice Art Walk, Venice CA

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006 2005 2002 2000-Present

RRReleased, Simple Space, New York, NY Parts and Labor, SOLOWAY, Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY SASIC 9, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA ArtwalkNY, Benefit for Coalition for the Homeless, New York, NY Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA Where Oceans Converge, Long Beach Island Found of the Arts and Sciences, Loveladies NJ Summer Group Show, Victorine Contemporary, Newport RI Swell 1950-2010 Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, NY Summer Group Show, Eric Phleger Gallery, Leucadia CA The Happening, Sydney Australia The Happening, Melbourne Australia The Happening, Brisbane Australia RRRproject, The Surf Gallery, Laguna Beach CA Summer Fling, Greenfield Sacks Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica CA In a Different Light, Eric Phleger Gallery, Leucadia CA Venice Art Walk, Venice CA Offshore: Susan Street Gallery, Solana Beach CA Auction 100, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA The Happening, Paris (catalogue) The Happening, London (catalogue) The Happening Cornwall, UK (catalogue) All Together Now, Pine Gallery, Ship Bottom, NJ The Happening, Tokyo (catalogue) The Happening, Sydney (catalogue) Venice Art Walk, Venice CA Art=Stimulus, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach CA Mostra Internacional da Arte E Cultura Surf, Sao Paolo, Brasil The Green Room Festival, Osaka and Yokohoma, Japan, May The Happening NYC, Milk Gallery, Chelsea, April (catalogue) The Happening, Orange County Museum of Art, January (catalogue) Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA The LA Scene, The Surf Gallery, Laguna CA Blue Baxter Chang, Patri Fine Art, San Francisco, CA New Work From LA, Gallery Agniel, Providence RI LA Light: Emerging Los Angeles, Photographers, Curated by Wesley Jessup, Director, Pasadena Museum of California Art Pierogi Gallery Flat Files, Brooklyn, New York

Curatorial Projects: 2002 Drifting: David Lloyd, Amy Sillman, Thaddeus Strode, Santa Monica CA Publications: 2013 2010 2008

Salted Walls, The Surfers Journal The Trajectory of his Path, The Surfers Journal SMetaplasmic: The Art of David Lloyd, H20 Magazine