Wilfredo Chiesa / GRACE NOTES

Wilfredo Chiesa

Grace Notes

Wilfredo Chiesa

Grace Notes

January 5 - 31, 2024 Alpha Gallery 450 Harrison Avenue,#55 Boston, MA 02118 info@alphagallery.com www.alphagallery.com

And those who were seen dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Grace Notes Wilfredo Chiesa emerged as a young artist from the intimate world of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, to achieve international notoriety for his nuanced, abstract paintings. Whether larger than llfe or small-scale, his paintings are the result of a practice of art-making that is process-oriented. Chiesa states that his working methods are meant “not to solve anything but to go through an experience” - exploring a range of emotions and tensions in the quest for harmony. Music has always been an important part of Chiesa’s life, starting with his experiences of classical music performances he attended in his youth. Starting with his first limited-edition artist’s book Relatos de un Paisaje Asesinado (1976), Chiesa actually integrated music into his artistic practice.

In reflecting on his current body of work, which juxtaposes monumental canvases (100 x 76 inches) with much smaller pieces (12 x 12 inches) Chiesa sees a dialog emerging from one to the other. Like musical “grace notes” - notes that quickly glide into other notes - the small paintings embellish the larger ones, while asserting their own distinctive qualities.

Like music, Chiesa’s abstract paintings are evocative but not representational. He seeks the “revelation of things invisible” through form, color and light, guided by the knowing hand.

- Joanna Fink, 2024

Grace Notes #1, (Detail)

The Deeps No. 7, 2009, Mixed Media on Canvas, 24”x30” (Private collection, New York)

Grace Notes #1, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 100” x 72”

Grace Notes #1.1, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #2, (Detail)

Grace Notes #2, 2022 - 23, Oil on Canvas, 100” x 72”

Grace Notes #2.1, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #3, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #4, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #5, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #6, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #7, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #8, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12”

Grace Notes #9, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 22.5” diameter

Grace Notes #10, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 22.5” diameter

Grace Notes #11, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 22.5” diameter

Grace Notes #2.1, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 12” x 12” (Detail)

Aural Light shimmers, ripples, melts, breaks through the surface, sinks into the silence, immense ~ dissolving into this otherness the surface world is but a distant sheen remembered, an oil slick to color the sky, if it were to float down and rest like cosmic paper, pause for breath, then lift to bind the book which nobody can read but down here, in here fragments of verses can be heard, distantly at first ~ high-pitched sounds drifting faintly on the deepest currents, echoes of great wheels turning, or perhaps the song of whales, calling to one another while in the surface world beams angle as far as they can reach, and waves churn and break in froth against a fortressed shore and gentle rain turns cobbled streets blue, a wash called aguacero, and the drops like grace notes sound on everything they touch - T.S. McLeod

Bo r n i n P u e r to R ico, an d clas s ically tr ained at t h e Be a u x- Art s s t yle Sch oo l of t he Plast i c Ar ts o f P u e r t o R ico, Ch ies a grew increas i n g l y dr a wn t o t h e Abs t ract E xp ress i o ni st m o v e m e n t in New Yo rk. As a young ar t i s t, h e g a i n ed ex pos u re t o various avantg ard e a r ti sts th ro u g h vis it s t o New Yor k ( he m o v e d th e re in 19 7 9 ) an d es pecially t hro u g h h i s f r i en ds h ip w it h t h e in fluential curato r H e n r y G eldzah ler. I n 19 7 7 , C hiesa rep re se n te d P uert o R ico at t h e Sao Paulo Bi enn i a l a n d h as s in ce h ad over 3 0 solo exhi b i t io n s th ro u g h o u t E u ro pe, L at in Am er ica and th e U . S . H is wo rk is repres en ted in the co l l e c ti o n s o f n u merou s mu s eu ms , includi ng t h e M u se u m o f F in e Art s , B os t on; El Mus e o d e l Ba r r io an d t h e Met ropolitan M us eum o f A r t, b o t h in New Yo rk Cit y; the V ict o ri a a n d A l be rt Mu s eu m, L o n don ; and the Bi b l i o th è q u e n at ion ale, Paris , among m any o t her s. Ch i e sa is a Profes s o r E meritus of Art a t th e U n i v e rs it y of Mas s ach u s etts Bost o n.

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