Hesse Flatow is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Charlotte Hallberg entitled Blind Aura. This is her second show with the gallery. Hallberg will showcase her most recent tondo oil paintings, as well as small scale graphite drawings on paper. Bold geometries and atmospheric color play with optical space, proudly exploring the realm of painting by pushing pigments, old and new, to produce a sensuous surface rich in texture and tone. Each painting is the result of a succinct series of carefully calculated steps that preclude revision. Hung in loose pairs, the paintings offer differing views from similar vantage points, yet individually create their own separate meditative space for long looking.
The circular canvas’s radiating compositions are reminiscent of dilating pupils or celestial objects. Palettes, and ultimately the mood of each painting, are developed from direct observations and existing color worlds: the marine layer of the San Francisco Bay, neon signage reflected in the rain, or the measured color of the universe incorrectly calculated as pale turquoise and later corrected to beige.
Peter Halley in conversation with Charlotte Hallberg at Crush Curatorial remarked,
“To me it makes sense to bring this up at the beginning, but what really impresses me in terms of the slow read, is to think of them as really complex mathematical equations that a person like me could never solve. I’ve always been fascinated by works of art like that, often in traditional figurative painting —a Titian or Rubens— or even in architecture, with Frank Lloyd Wright.”
