STEVE RIEDELL
‘In and Out of The Light’ New Paintings On Paper And Other Works

Mid-October through Early December 2013

Front room, counterclockwise from right, at window:

All paintings on paper are acrylic gesso and acrylic paint on prepared rag paper and are frame:
Paper size: 30” x 23” ; image size: 28” x 21”; Outside frame dimensions: 32 ½” x 25 ½”

1. Untitled #7/ Series Two, 2013 [Pale Orange], 2013

2. Untitled #8/ Series Two, 2013 [Blue], 2013

3. Untitled #11/ Series Two, 2013 [Red and White], 2013

4. Untitled #1/ Series Two, 2013 [Violet], 2013

5. Untitled #12/ Series Two, 2013 [Pale Violet], 2013

6. Untitled #9/ Series Two, 2013 [Blue and White], 2013

7. Untitled #5/ Series Two, 2013 [Orange], 2013

8. Untitled #4/ Series Two, 2013 [Green], 2013

9. Untitled #2/ Series Two, 2013 [Viridian Green], 2013

Second room, clockwise from left, at entry:

10. Untitled #10/ Series Two, 2013 [Ochre], 2013

11. Untitled #3/ Series Two, 2013 [Red], 2013

12. Untitled #6/ Series Two, 2013 [Yellow], 2013

13. Folded Over Painting (White / #2), 2013, 2013
Oil/Wax/Canvas/Wood/Staples; 30” x 17” x 2 ½”

14. Folded Over Painting (Dark Purple / #2), 2013, 2013
Oil/Wax/Canvas/Wood/Staples; 24 ¼” x 23 ¾” x 3”

15. Folded Over Painting (Yellow Orange), 2013, 2013
Oil/Wax/Canvas/Wood/Staples; 36” x 29” x 3 ½”

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As we observe the twenty-fifth anniversary of the full-time operation of our gallery, Larry Becker Contemporary Art, we are very pleased to present a new series of works by Steve Riedell, a Philadelphia artist who is a native of California and whose work we have been representing for nearly twenty years.

As a dedicated painter, he has worked for many years with oil and beeswax on canvas applied to supports which he builds out, takes apart, and builds out again,all the while continuing to apply more thin veils of color. This process results in paintings which are distinctively his: light-catching forms that speak with the space they inhabit while carrying just a whispered sense (perhaps nostalgic, yet purely abstract) of a remembered time and place.

Alongside his oil on canvas paintings, he has continued to make works on paper.Some of these are paintings and some are without paint and literally poetic, using lyrics of songwriters which he carefully types out, cuts (letter by letter) and makes into delicate spiraled forms collaged onto paper.

This new series (‘Untitled/Series Two, 2013’: twelve medium-scaled works on rag paper) carries on some of the methods and materials of the earlier paintings on paper but now uses complex color layering and fold-shaped (but not actually folded) motifs, the roots of which can be seen in his continuing recent oil on canvas “Folded-over Paintings”. Using a spare, quiet semi-geometry and thinly layered hues, he builds crisp overlapping forms within a very flat surface. In these new works, Riedell is able to continue to both reify the act of painting and at the same time bring forth ever-changing atmospheres with a slight tint of memory.

The exhibition begins on Saturday, October 12, 2013.

The following week, on Saturday, October 19, there is a reception to meet the artist beginning at 5:30 and ending at 7:30 PM. The exhibition continues until December 7th, 2013.