HESSE FLATOW is pleased to present Sharper Still, an exhibition of paintings by the New York-based artist Charlotte Hallberg. Organized in association with OCHI PROJECTS, this occasion marks her third solo presentation with the gallery, and first in Los Angeles.
Through vibrantly hued compositions, Hallberg’s signature tondos engage viewers in a purely optical experience. Each painting presents a distinct palette inspired by observations of her immediate surroundings. From the glow of brake lights to the glistening of trees after a rain, Hallberg hones in on subtle gradations of color and light that gradually reveal themselves as a result of prolonged looking.
Although her paintings are not mediated through a camera’s lens, their circular formats call to mind apertures through which to focus the eye. In the past, Hallberg has relied on a geometric logic to partition her canvases into distinct shapes and patterns, ushering one’s gaze concentrically in and outward in regular, pulsating rhythms. Her recent iterations adopt a more intuitive approach, as she loosely delineates her surfaces with crisp edges and hazy outlines, as if steadily zooming in and out of the picture plane. Her durational process is reminiscent of long photographic exposures and slower shutter speeds, which in turn prescribe a protracted form of reading.
Sharper Still brings together Hallberg’s newest tondos whose imagery is sourced from nature scapes outside the artist’s home. Not only do their subject matters encourage a contemplative state of stillness, but their persistent abstractions simultaneously embody an incessant desire to refocus and capture a sharper still.
