Chad Redl

Organic yet artificial, molecular but grandiose, Chad Redl’s dramatic and dazzling acrylic compositions confound distinctions of scale and style with explosive visual power. The Canadian painter has also worked in set design, which explains the frequent theatricality of his most lavish canvases. Each practically abstract scene takes place against a vivid backdrop of swaying, burning bright yellows and greens that sashay over deep blues and reds. These surreal settings, reminiscent of Fred Tomaselli’s visionary vistas, host dances of innumerable atom-like circles in bold-toned paints.

These perfect daubs of acrylic in tropical turquoise, roaring orange, chilled blue and bright lava red are Redl’s subjects and building blocks. In certain works they coalesce into natural forms like infinite caves alive with nocturnal life, or flowers blooming to meet the morning sun. Elsewhere these optimistic units of intense color take on unmistakably human forms. Viewers can only guess at the practically pointillist scenes being portrayed, a guessing game that neither ends nor diminishes in its aesthetic pleasures.