KARL PILATO
RHYTHM AND LIGHT
KARL PILATO RHYTHM AND LIGHT October 4th – November 17th Bryant Street Gallery is excited to announce Rhythm and Light, a new exhibition of ethereal abstract paintings by Karl Pilato. The elegant collection, marked by its lilting brushwork and elusive shapes, will be on view from October 4th to November 17. The gallery welcomes the public to an opening reception on Saturday, October 7th, from 3-5 p.m. Pilato is a Colorado-based artist who explores the limits of cadence and line in his work. Within each painting, organic forms meld together then pull apart. He considers the movement of the shapes and lines in each piece, how their colors play off each other, and what is happening in the areas between them. By a systematic removal of paint from the canvas, the negative spaces within each painting assume complex and varied forms that demand as much attention as the colorful brushstrokes. Absence– what is withheld– is as crucial as what is revealed. As an inherently gestural painter, Pilato plays with the contours of the natural world. The configurations within each painting form almost-but-not-quite identifiable figures. Lines and shapes are “pieces of emerging landscapes” with multifaceted parts; one brushstroke could be a hillside or a flower. The different elements are indivisible from another, flowing together with inscrutable mystique while his refined palette heightens the sense of ethereality. “Simultaneous movement and stillness” is achieved through an “improvised dance,” the process immortalized onto the canvas. Pilato received his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has been awarded fellowships for residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon. His work is in the collection of the Portland Art Museum and can be found internationally in corporate and private collections. Rhythm and Light will be on view at 532 Bryant Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301 from October 4th to November 17th. For more images and information please visit the website at www.bryantstreet.com or email us at bryantst@mac.com
Biography Karl Pilato received his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has had solo exhibitions at Space Gallery in Denver, CO; Bryant Street Gallery in Palo Alto, CA; Bread and Salt in San Diego, CA; Alcove in New York, NY; and Butters Gallery in Portland, OR. His work has been included in exhibitions at Gallery 1871 in Chicago, IL; FP Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose, CA; Etra Fine Art in Miami, FL; Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM; and Kathryn Markel Fine Art in New York, NY. He has been awarded fellowships for residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon. His work is in the collection of the Portland Art Museum and internationally in corporate and private collections. He is currently based in Colorado Springs, CO. Artist Statement The lines and shapes in my paintings suggest pieces of emerging landscapes. My attention is focused on their gestural character, their rhythmic interactions, the resonance of their colors, and their balanced movement through the composition. I think of the white space in my paintings as absence inhabiting presence. I begin by searching for structure and movement with gestural lines that rise and fall, bump into each other, spread apart, disappear, and reappear. Along the way, I return sections to white by wiping away. As the painting evolves, more varied gestures and textures arise in response to one another. A broad smear of a rag is followed by a restrained touch of a brush. The shapes flow, one into the next, at times repeating and other times breaking free. My discoveries of the “right” colors inspire the direction of the painting as much as the energy of the gestures. Throughout this improvised dance, I aim for simultaneous movement and stillness. Sometimes gently, sometimes jarringly, the white space in my paintings interrupts and breaks through lines and shapes, itself becoming a form. The lines and shapes do not fully resolve into fixed things. Flowers or petals in the wind could just as easily be bits of sky. As white space weaves through the composition, absence is felt as not separate from presence, and a landscape unceasingly emerges.
The Other Shore Oil on canvas 66” x 78”
Everything is Flying Today Oil on canvas 60” x 72”
Broken Shimmer Oil on canvas 60” x 50”
Cursive Moon Oil on canvas 64” x 56”
This Way and That Oil on canvas 64” x 54”
Where Light Begins Oil on canvas 54” x 64”
Inside Out Oil on canvas 64” x 54”
Hands of Green Oil on canvas 57” x 50”
Body/Flower/Sky 15 Watercolor on Yupo 26” x 20”
Body/Flower/Sky 16 Watercolor on Yupo 26” x 20”
Untitled Watercolor on paper 10” x 10”
Untitled Watercolor on paper 10” x 10”