McKenzie Fine Art

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467

	Paul Corio: Unspoiled Monsters January 8 - February 16, 2025
	view exhibition	Paul Corio’s paintings have long explored systematic chromatic arrangements: colors layered onto simple geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, triangles, and diamonds, sometimes ordered by value, hue, and saturation, or at times applied randomly and intuitively. In previous shows Corio explored a variety of compositional strategies in vividly hued and precisely rendered paintings. This exhibition focuses exclusively on works using a “ribbon” motif. These paintings are created from interlocking triangles in a variety of disciplined color sequences that begin with a light value and resolve to dark. The number of chromatic steps varies from one sequence to another, as does the level of color saturation. The most pronounced feature of these paintings is the exploration of ribbons of color set in contrast to a ground color. In paintings where the ground is composed of light-colored triangles, the bands move from dark to light. Where the ground is dark, the inverse is true. The result is a spatial dynamic where colored ribbons emerge or recede into a hazy, atmospheric space and at times seem to vanish into the ground. Within gray-scale ribbons the sequence is occasionally disrupted, with an effect of shimmering light. The arrangement of ribbons reads as flat in some sequences, while in others it describes deep, three-dimensional, perspectival space. Movement can appear rapid, as in zigzagging lighting-bolt sequences, or to proceed slowly in diagonals across the painting, before the bands fracture and scatter. The works can be suggestive of architectonic shapes: tall buildings, short walls or fences, moving deep into space and then flattening parallel to the picture plane. Overall, the space is unstable and dynamic, with fast and slow rhythms coexisting. The titles of Corio’s paintings reflect his wide-ranging interests. A drummer who started out in 70s punk bands, he now plays with a jazz combo; song titles by Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Roland Kirk are referenced. Corio’s titles also quote cinema, as well as the playful names of thoroughbred racers, and a chapter heading in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The exhibition title is the name of the first chapter of Truman Capote’s unfinished novel, Answered Prayers. Through his work, Corio expresses his embrace of Nietzsche’s formulation of the Dionysian: that life is an astonishing gift, full of wonder and art and music, an endless parade of experiences for all the senses and predilections. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Corio was educated at RISD and holds an MFA from New York’s Hunter College. Corio has lived in New York City for over thirty years, and has been exhibiting his work in gallery and museum shows across the United States and in Europe for nearly twenty years. His work has been reviewed in Artnews, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Two Coats of Paint, and The New York Times, among others.

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467
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