Pierre-Louis Acciari
The French Perspective: Contemporary Art from France
June 27 - July 17, 2009
Reception:
Thursday July 2, 2009 6-8 PM
Press Release
Pierre-Louis Acciari’s raw sincerity is as unnerving as it is endearing. It’s this tension between ominous harshness and tender honesty that makes his paintings so compelling. Acciari is, after all, exploring fear, a constantly present, perpetually relevant entity. Distorted faces almost always occupy the frame of Acciari’s paintings. The faces, which at times seem both the victim and the embodiment of fear, sometimes dominate, and sometimes lurk in the background. Sometimes they are expressively opaque and sometimes ghostly transparent. The dynamic characterization that occurs in Acciari’s work reflects the comic strip vocabulary that has informed his sensibility since childhood. As a student, Acciari discovered the expressionism of Pollock and Basquiat and the distorted figuration of Francis Bacon, who added painterly emotiveness to his oeuvre. Pop culture and art history effortlessly interact in Acciari’s work, making his paintings as accessible as they are informed.
Acciari, who works as an art director, has pursued a successful design career in addition to his painting. He works in the Lyon region of southern France.
Artist Statement
I knew from childhood that I wanted to create in some way, initially due to my love of comic books - growing up in France, I had access to many of the masters of the comic book art, and they have been and still are to this day very important to me and my work, my inspiration. For me, art is my escape. It allows me to deal with my life and conquer my fears, which become transferred onto the canvas and trasmuted into something new and creative. If others can look at my paintings and feel a sense of release, and perhaps even look at life in a different way, than I truly would have accomplished my ultimate artistic dream.
Invitation to the exhibition
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Artists in this exhibition
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