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“You have to see through the artist’s eyes, perceive through his senses, feel through his soul”.
Valentina Ricupati M.A.D Gallery Milano Art Curator Adunanza
“When my intellect, focus, and expression combine with a subject matter, something that I can only describe as magical occurs. The lines, marks, shapes, and colors that I use create an essence of what I see and feel. It captures a moment in time. My paintings and drawings are the statements that I make to convey my existence in this world�. Chris Harvey
Professional Artist
www.madgallerymilano.com
In a time in which we tend to celebrate the superfluous, in which the machine prevails on humans, in which overly we contemplate technology, the return to simplicity and everyday life arises as a real need. The need to return to the essentials. The need to reflect on our existence. The need to give attention to what really concerns us. That's how a painter intent to carry out his work, a thoughtful man, a young and insecure dancer, a common landscape, become the favorite subjects of the American artist Chris Harvey. The intense colors, the fragmented lines, the special attention to the emotions, and to the images stolen from reality, make Chris an artist fully immersed into the ideological trend that began in the late nineteenth century with Van Gogh. His purpose is in fact, to restore the value of man, of his existence: to turn the spotlight on people usually recognized as "non-actors". Adunanza
“Reflection” 30x30 inches Acrylic on canvas www.madgallerymilano.com
“Rocky river” 30x40 inches Acrylic on canvas Adunanza
A river overflows beyond its borders, flooding the surrounding landscape. It is a sort of energy flow that originates in the background and reaches the viewer, giving the sensation to come out from the canvas. Its strength and vitality revitalize the whole landscape: the rocks seem to shine on their own; the branches of the tree emerge from the confines of the canvas, giving the sensation of continuous growth. The tree, the rocks and the river are all connected into a reality that goes beyond reality itself. A common landscape seems to be alive thanks to the strong colors and the strong brushstrokes used. The colors are actually the real protagonist of Chris’s style, not only as regards the chosen tones, but also as regards their treatment. Materic and vibrant, they really seem to come to life. This particular technique recalls a clear inspiration to the trend of Post-Impressionism and precisely to Van Gogh’s style and his main feature to give life to landscapes. The entire canvas is not an objective representation of a landscape, but it’s a subjective elaboration through the eyes and the soul of the artist. Chris shows us the inner side of the nature, its spirit beyond its external appearance, by the way in which he feels the world. This is his personal point of view, his own reality gave by his artistic sensibility. www.madgallerymilano.com
“Poised ballerina” 24x36 inches. Acrylic on canvas Adunanza
Nervy legs, tiny waist, tense arms, face in profile. The work is divided in half by the figure of the dancer, that occupying vertically the central part of the painting, acts as a pivot around which the entire composition develops. The left hand slides over the wide and bustling skirt, the right hand encircles the shoulder, as if sore, in a closing gesture. The presence of dancer dominates not only physically but also emotionally. With her body and her thoughts she creates the space around her. Although she is self-absorbed, everything starts from her and from her Ego. The perspective lines are deformed, the colors are synthesized according to her emotional tension. The purple and green which she is composed, are simplified in the blue and the yellow that stand in the background. Blue, symbol of dreamlike world, holds dreams, insecurities and fears. Yellow, symbol of life, reveals a harsh reality thanks to its light. The first pushes vigorously beyond its borders until overpowering on the second. The inner strength prevails over daily hardships. www.madgallerymilano.com
The dancer finds in her unconscious the courage to face her fears and the determination to win. Through a masterful use of color, Chris Harvey was able to give life to a composition emotionally touching and involving, facing the issue of the inner conflict, the real protagonist of this artwork. The dancer is there, exists, reflects, she is the master of space and time. The mark of her “being there” is visible in everything around. Chris expresses the importance of being in the world as thinking beings, entering from a pictorial point of view in a philosophical and theoretical reflection that is grounded in the Cartesian "Cogito ergo sum" and evolves in the Existentialism of Martin Heidegger. The “Being there” is life itself, is not in life. The “Dasein”, understood in its extreme possibility of being, is time itself, and is not in time.
Adunanza
“Cutting an edge” 30x40 inches Acrylic on canvas
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M.A.D. GALLERY MILANO MODA - ARTE - DESIGN Critical analysis and Graphic Design by
Valentina Ricupati
Special thanks to the Art Directors Alessandra Magni and Carlo Greco
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Adunanza