ABEL MACIAS
A PLACE TO PUT A MEMORY
Exhibition dates: October 30 - December 8, 2024
Reception: Wednesday October 30th, 6-8PM
SITUATIONS HENRY ST
127 Henry Street, New York, NY 10002
SITUATIONS is pleased to present new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Abel Macias. For his debut exhibition with the gallery, Macias takes inspiration from the natural world, focusing on the variety of landscapes found in and around his home state of California. Applying a bold, expressive palette and textural brushstrokes, Macias imbues his scenes with a sensuousness that conveys not only a vista but an experience of being in a particular place and time.
Depicting iconic views and places of personal importance with equal reverence, Macias’ expressive landscapes convey the grandeur of nature through an intimate lens. Sketching from life and referencing these preliminary drawings when approaching his canvases, he experiments with color, pattern, and form. Naturalistic shades of green, blue, and ochre appear beside flashes of neon and jewel tones, detaching color from mere physical description. Contrasting hues remain distinct as broad, unblended brushstrokes, coming together like patches of a quilt. The visible textures, glimpses of underpainting, and traces of Macias’ brush impart a physicality and feeling of spontaneity to the painting, creating a direct link that continually refers back to the moment of observation and its accompanying sensations: the gentle warmth of the sun, aromas of cypress and Pacific salt spray, the rustle of a breeze through branches.
Several titles indicate the locations represented, ranging from familiar respites within city limits to further destinations like Catalina Island, Mount Zion, and Yosemite National Park’s Mirror Lake. Arboretum (2024) portrays the botanical garden and historical site located within L.A. County. Abstracted, individual trees crop up in the foreground, defined by harlequin-like patterning of emerald green, mauve, and chartreuse. Catalina Trail (2024) presents a more zoomed-out perspective, celebrating the rugged terrain, shimmering waves, and pristine coast. Bathed in a radiant golden glow, Macias’s painting evokes the site’s organic beauty and the euphoria of a day spent reconnecting with nature. Not all of the paintings reveal their sites of inspiration by name. The title, Sunday With My Love, indicates instead what this particular lush view represents for the artist: a tender, singular moment in time, fleeting in experience but enduring in memory.
ABEL MACIAS (b. 1979 Atlanta, GA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He holds a BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with additional course work at School of Visual Arts, NYC and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Exhibitions include SITUATIONS, NYC; la BEAST, Los Angeles; Hashimoto Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Artists Space Gallery, NYC; Laney Contemporary, Savannah GA; and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA. His work is in many private and public collections, including SCAD Atlanta, and SCAD Hong Kong. Macias is perhaps most well known for his mural work in both private residences (South Hampton, Turks and Caicos, Cabo, MX) and public spaces, including Proper Hotel DTLA, CA (interiors by Kelly Wearstler); Maybourne Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA; Lane Crawford, Hong Kong, Shanghai; Flamingo Estate, Los Angeles; Heimet, Los Angeles; JAJA, Cleveland, OH, and Chatham Hall, Savanna, GA.
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