Fade: Eric LoPresti September 11, 2009

Like the Spice is proud to present Fade, its second solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Eric LoPresti. The works in Fade are predominated by the soft colors of the desert steppe – grays, ochres, pinks and dark blues. In contrast, the imagery is dramatic in scope and subject, including vast aerial views of fractured desert landscapes, nuclear test sites in Nevada, and explosions from undisclosed arid locations, many of which are based on photographs LoPresti took himself from the windows of chartered planes.

LoPresti’s work is about conflict. The works in Fade investigate the traumatic side effects of contemporary war through landscapes that are the sites of weapons tests, reactors, and munitions dumps. Building off of his previous diptychs which juxtaposed sites of violent conflict with colored gradient fields, LoPresti’s new works convey a post-cold-war zeitgeist with a confident hand and genuine devotion to the aesthetics of the austere. The new works seamlessly incorporates landscapes and gradients, opening up contemplative possibilities and heightening the effect of the vast spaces they depict. Rather than polemicize, LoPresti’s works provide space to encounter the drama and vastness of forces both within and beyond human control..

Eric LoPresti, born 1971, holds a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He is the recipient of the Faber Birren/Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation Award and the Miami Young Painters, William and Dorothy Yeck Purchase Award. Recent solo exhibitions include Against Nature (2005) at Jan Larsen Fine Art, New Thought New Work (2006), at Miami University, Force Against Force (2008) at Like the Spice, and Test Sites (2008) at the New York Public Library. LoPresti lives and works in Brooklyn.

Official Website: http://www.likethespice.com/fade/fadersvp/html