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Alex Couwenberg Review in Visual Art Source

5/14/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Recommended by DeWitt Cheng:

Alex Couwenberg has chosen the title “Chevrons,” referring to the V- or caret-shaped motif in heraldry that most of us associate with the Chevron gasoline logo, with its nestling red and blue V shapes; a sergeant’s stripes, with three gold carets; or Kenneth Noland’s “Chevron” series of hard-edged abstract paintings made in the early 1960s.

 
But while Couwenberg is influenced by crisply delineated shapes faultlessly rendered, these works adopt the spatial ambiguity of cubism, with abstract forms suggesting overlapping architectural plans or machine parts in a temporary balance. Couwenberg: “The additive and reductive processes of my paintings reveal compositions of densely layered forms and patterns that weave in and out of each other, suggesting space, time, and the moment.” While Noland’s “Chevron” paintings propounded an aesthetic of radical purity, Couwenberg’s works, despite their Southern California design clarity (related to automobile and surfing culture), reflect the current cultural moment of diversity and uncertainty.
 
His use of alternating black and white stripes suggest modernist architecture, herringbone fabric and super graphics. We think, too, of shadow patterns used to cinematic effect in film noir, which was so often set in the City of the Angels. Mysteriously beautiful forms, with their multiple associations, seem to float in shallow space, set off by airbrushed shadows and halations. Ruler-straight lines and compass-perfect curves —sometimes flat, but sometimes rendered in low-relief gel-heavy acrylic that looks like collaged cardboard, wood or plexiglas —  are contrasted with irregularities. Such broken forms and brief passages of impasto emerge from the flat, otherwise pure picture plane. Couwenberg’s titles, such as “Bombardier,” “Mai Tai” and “Pleasure Seeker,” convey an ironic 1960s vibe. His use of color, while lush, is modulated and shadowed. These icons are fascinating both for their complexity and contradiction.
1 Comment
Julian link
4/6/2019 02:16:58 pm

Love your gallery.

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Andrea Schwartz Gallery

545 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 | 415.495.2090 | info@asgallery.com
  • Exhibitions
    • Current
    • Previous
    • By Year >
      • 2023 >
        • Group Show
        • Tom Bolles
      • 2022 >
        • Group Show 2022
        • Deborah Bell & Heather Patterson
        • Suhas Bhujbal
        • Ned Evans & Mitch Jones
        • Barbara Kronlins & John Nelson
        • Patrick Dintino
        • Donald Bradford
        • Wynne Hayakawa
      • 2021 >
        • Group Show 2021
        • Ferdinanda Florence & Gwen Manfrin
        • Heather Patterson
        • Piero Spadaro
        • Cara Barer
        • COLOR
        • Tom Bolles
        • John Belingheri & Albert Dicruttalo
        • Robin Kandel
      • 2020 >
        • Gallery Group Show
        • Ned Evans
        • Suhas Bhujbal
        • Alex Couwenberg & Jeff Metz
        • Stitch Group Show
        • Patrick Dintino
        • Sarah Williams
        • Art Miami 2020
      • 2019 >
        • Gallery Group Show
        • Out of Town Group Show
        • Tom Bolles
        • Piero Spadaro
        • Cara Barer
        • Summer In SOMA
        • Wynne Hayakawa
        • John Belingheri
        • Danae Anderson
      • 2018 >
        • Group Show
        • Ned Evans & Jeff Metz
        • Gwen Manfrin & Tim Yankosky
        • Alex Couwenberg
        • Donald Bradford
        • Barbara Kronlins & Sarah Wililams
        • Patrick Dintino
        • Suhas Bhujbal
        • Seamus Conley & Albert Dicruttalo
      • 2017 >
        • Mitch Jones Julian Voss Andreae Exhibition 2017
        • John Belingheri Exhibition 2017
        • John Bonick - Tracy Krumm Exhibition
        • Chad Hasegawa
        • Cara Barer and Jamie Brunson
        • Gugger Petter
        • Tom Bolles
        • Piero Spadaro
        • Wynne Hayakawa - Ferdinand Florence
      • 2016 >
        • Anderson and Dicruttalo 2016
        • Robin Kandel
        • Patrick Dintino
        • ASG - SFAI MFA Highlights
        • Peter Combe
        • Suhas Bhujbal
        • Palladini and Weinstein
        • Alex Couwenberg
        • Imboden and Lobato
      • 2015 >
        • Barer and Hsu
        • John Belingheri
        • Krumm and Manfrin
        • Surface
        • Tom Bolles
        • Seamus Conley
        • Bell, Corrigan, and Tidwell
        • John Nelson
        • LA | SF
      • 2014 >
        • Suhas Bhujbal
        • Philip Buller
        • Patrick Dintino
        • Florence and Hayakawa
        • Bonick and Yankosky
        • Gugger Petter
        • Brunson and Kronlins
        • Robin Kandel
        • Crowd
  • Artists
    • Search by Name
  • News
  • Gallery
    • Staff
    • Gallery Rental
    • Artist Submissions
  • Contact
  • Bardessono
  • Hotel Yountville