McKenzie Fine Art: James Lecce Exhibition

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467 fax 212 989 5642

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	James Lecce May 1 - June 5, 2016
	Lecce’s process-driven paintings are created through careful control of his materials and his technique, resulting in paintings that seem to be created all at once with nearly flawless surfaces. He begins by pre-selecting his palette, mixing his own paints by adding pigments to acrylic polymers in order to control the opacity, luminosity, and translucency of each color. Through various pooling and pouring techniques executed in multiple layers, he creates the foundation for his tight, linear compositions. Lecce works additional paint into and against these dense linear patterns. In the resulting works, whorls of color swoop and swirl, bulge and pulsate across glossy surfaces, flowing like fast-moving lava fields. Streams of color constrict and expand, moving past one another with an enhanced sense of speed and intensity. Pronounced elements of depth, volume and vibrancy emerge and give a sense of expansive fluid growth and dimension. In this new body of work, Lecce has pushed the limits of his process to create paintings of heightened visual energy and density. The compositions are more linear and have greater movement and surface activity than in previous bodies of work. Color palettes range from icy and vaporous to bold and bright with strong contrasts. In several paintings Lecce restricts his palette to two or three colors, placing greater emphasis on the compositional energy, linearity and movement. Iridescent and metallic colors are a constant in his work and for him are evocative of the alchemical process that painting can be. Crescendos and lulls in the flow of paint create rhythms reminiscent of musical compositions. Additionally, recent travels to southern France and the colors and effulgence of flowers in the landscapes and monastery gardens there, as well as his own rooftop garden in Manhattan, have influenced the compositional density and palette choices. For this artist, both travel and horticulture provide invigorating creative resources of exploration and discovery, freedom and escape, and it is his goal to have these same sensibilities conveyed through his work.