"The work emerges from personal upheaval - echoing phenomena like storm systems, geological shifts, and atmospheric turbulence..."
5-50 Gallery presents TEMPESTA, a solo exhibition comprising six shaped-canvas artworks by New Orleans based artist, Ann Marie Auricchio. Auricchio is originally from Queens, NY, and we are thrilled to welcome her back to her hometown to present her first ever solo exhibition in New York. Using photo-copies from her own personal paintings archive, Auricchio stitches together a paper collage maquette to form her large-scale oil paintings. Elements of the past are imbued in the present in this presentation of tumultuous works on canvas. By incorporating past design elements into her work, the artist has the opportunity to re-shape the past to create space for the future.
Each individual piece is a snapshot in time, a distillation of a thousand ideas, strokes, gestures, emotions moving through space. The mastery of the artist comes from her ability to make time stop, and allow us to see an evanescent moment of stillness caught within the storm. Process becomes a literal manifestation of transformation, where every new painting carries the DNA of previous works, building an archaeological history that reforms the past into new possibilities. Originating from a raw and visceral state, her paintings magnify the power of vulnerability. Expressing such intense inner turmoil, in the form of a natural phenomenon sheds light on the environmental mirror of inner chaos. The sweeping gestures, like feathered flora, reflect universally shared experiences like fragility and protecting one’s vulnerability.
The importance of release, spillage, and giving way to something allows for an opportunity for something new to emerge. Overwhelming excess of dysregulated sentiment spills out of the four corners of a traditional canvas, and instead juts out in all directions forming jagged edges and drooping spills. The history of the shaped canvas refers to an interest in examining the viewing space by cutting into the architecture surrounding the artwork. As opposed to previous iterations, however, Auricchio’s work does not draw attention to the form of the object or the medium. Instead, these large scale storms drift in and out of the traditional shape according to their own volition. Much like the artist herself, each canvas stands out for its unapologetic boldness and unique visual identity.