Aaron Fink: The Rite of Spring

AARON FINK The Rite of Spring

Cherries, 2013, oil on panel, 40 x 30 inches

AARON FINK The Rite of Spring May 3 - June 4, 2014

Alpha Gallery 37 Newbury Street Boston, Ma 02116 617.536.4465 info@alphagallery.com www.alphagallery.com

In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

— Pliny (the Elder) Deceased August 24, 24 A.D. at Mount Vesuvius It is the simple things that open the possibilities to the complexities of experience. The simple is really not so simple. The commonplace is the stepping stone to the universal. It is the link that we share, the place we start from, for example “How’s the weather today?” This is a common phenomena that binds us like a fabric, but then there are differences that separate us and the perceptions of the individual that are the result of one’s own unique experiences. Art can remain humble and seek the heroic in equal portions. The origins of art can be found anywhere one looks for them.

In painting, for me, the message is in the medium, the materiality or substance of the paint itself. The image in the painting is of the commonplace, but it is also the point of departure. What is painted becomes the vehicle, the way into a realm of sensation based on experience and the physical nature of the paint itself. The idea is to know what it is and not know what it is. There is the image, the form, the volume, the illusion, a sign from the world. Then there is the reality of the canvas, the flatness of the painted surface and the physical nature of the paint itself and the hand. The attempt is to create a synthesis of contradictions based on intuition.

The intent is to create a visualization of the idea of an image while denying the illusion of it in order to reconcile it with the materiality of the paint itself. The attempt then is that the painting become something else, a vehicle for thought that transposes itself into an object of contemplation.

— Aaron Fink

Peony, 2014, oil on panel, 40 x 30 inches

Blue Rose, 2013, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Blue Rose, 2012, oil on panel, 40 x 30 inches

Cherries, 2012, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Cherries, 2013, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Blue Magnolia, 2009, oil on linen, 72 x 60 inches

Magnolia (Orange Ground), 2011, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Magnolia (Purple & Blue), 2010, oil on linen, 48 x 60 inches

Magnolia (Magenta), 2014, oil on panel, 11 x 14 inches

Lotus, 2011, oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches

Key Lime Pie, 2013, oil on panel, 11 x 14 inches

Blueberry Pie, 2013, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches

Banana Split, 2013, oil on panel, 30 x 40 inches

Banana Split, 2012, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches

Whipped Cream 1, 2014, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Whipped Cream 2, 2014, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Whipped Cream 3, 2014, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches

Magnolia (Pink), 2014, oil on panel, 30 x 24 inches

Blue Peony, 2013, oil on panel, 24 x 12 inches

Pink Peony, 2013, oil on panel, 24 x 12 inches

Peony, 2014, oil on linen, 60 x 48 inches

Magnolia, 2010, oil on panel, 40 x 30 inches

Peony, 2014, oil on panel, 40 x 30 inches

Born in Boston, 1955 Selected Collections Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC Anderson Industries, Rockford, IL Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA Art Institute of Chicago Bank of America Boston Public Library Bouwfonds Netherlandse Gemeenten, The Netherlands Brooklyn Museum of Art Castelli Collection, New York Chase Manhattan Bank Chemical Bank Childrens Hospital, Chicago Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingofrd, CT Citizens Bank, Boston Coopers & Lybrand Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA Danish House of Parliament Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA Farnsworth Museum, Maine Fidelity Investments, Boston Firstbank of Minneapolis Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA G.E. Corporation Goldman Sachs & Company Graham Gund Collection Hara Museum, Tokyo Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida, Gainsville Arthur J. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin E.F. Hutton IBM, New York Indianapolis Museum of Art Library of Congress Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Modern Art, New York

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC New York Public Library Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL Paine-Webber Group, New York Peat, Warwick, Mitchell & Co., New York & Florida Philadelphia Museum of Art Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine Kimoko and John Powers Prudential Life Insurance Co. Putnam Investments, Boston, MA Roxbury Community College Sonesta International Hotel Corp.

Stop & Shop Inc., Boston Sundance Institute, Provo, Utah Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, The Netherlands Texas Instruments J.Walter Thompson Lois and Michael Torf Collection Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston United States Department of State University of Massachusetts, Amherst Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Wellington Management Co., Boston Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA Zimmerli Art Museum, Brunswick, NJ Education School of Art and Architecture, Yale University, Hew Haven, CT, MFA 1979 Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD, BFA 1977 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine; Summer 1976