Isaac Aden
The Numinous Sublime
GalleriesNow
February 2, 2022
This newest series of paintings is a continuation of a much larger body of work that Aden created over the past several years and the subject of three prior solo presentations at David Richard Gallery. The earlier series (that comprised the first two solo presentations) are also ethereal, reductive compositions of red, blue and yellow colors, each applied with an aerosolization of the oil medium and pigment, allowing gravity to place each droplet (point or pixel) onto wet tonal gray oil paint on stretched canvases horizontally situated on the floor of the studio (or outdoor terrace) to create a wet-on-wet application, while the viewer’s eye does the color mixing to blend the primary colors in different densities, proportions, and layers to create subtle, elegant transitions of the hues from one to the other. The canvases in these earlier series are smaller in size, mostly 60 x 48 inches in the vertical orientation and titled Tonal Painting then larger, up to 94 x 60 inches, also vertically oriented and titled Vesper, as well as several horizontal canvases measuring 60 x 94 inches titled Aurora. The palettes are bright with internal relationships between each series creating arrays of colors influenced by sunsets and sunrises and subtle color shifts within each array to generate in the aggregate a full spectrum of colors.
The third solo exhibition for Aden, The Numinous Sublime and The Romantics, was a series of monumental scale paintings ranging from single panels measuring 108 x 144 inches and a triptych measuring 144 x 324 inches. These paintings are related to the earlier series in that they were colorful, inspired by landscapes, but more specifically, sunrises and sunsets and all titled Tonal Paintings. These were clearly a transition to the grand scale of the current presentation noted above but with different, darker and moodier, color palettes..
Aden experimented with this approach to painting several years prior to embarking on the larger series of paintings and monumental scale in a much more organized and systemic fashion in the past two years during the Covid pandemic with the lockdowns and isolation. Over those two years, the color palettes changed from bright and colorful arrays strongly referencing nature with the light source at different times of day and the tonal quality of atmospheric perspective impacting the perceptual depth within the compositions. The later monumental series were also rooted in nature, but more influenced by art history and the complexities of the extreme astral and landscape atmospheric depths evoking questions about infinity, the abyss and sublime, as well as formally with monochrome paintings also conjuring such moods, wonder, and awe. Hence, the shift to the darker palettes, larger scale, and reductive compositions as well as references to Rothko, religious alters, and chapels.
About Isaac Aden:
Isaac Aden is an artist and curator. His work engages the arc of history through the lenses of the human condition. Aden’s Post-Medium practice has centered its primary research in the area of New Institutionalism. Aden makes bodies of work often tangentially related and even visually disparate with no desire to ascribe an aesthetic conclusion. In this way the practice becomes absorbent and generative.
Aden has exhibited internationally, including: dOCUMENTA 13, MassMOCA, The Fedricianum, White Box, Kassel Werkstadt, David Richard Gallery, Gallerie Rasch, Ulrike Petschel Gallerie, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, SPRING/BREAK, Art Miami, Contemporary Istanbul, VOLTA Basel, Sotheby’s, The Jerome A. Cohen And Joan Lebold Cohen Center for Art. The Bertha and Karl Luebsdorf Gallery, The International Gallery of Contemporary Art, The Parthenon Museum, The New York Public Library, and The World Trade Center.
Aden is on the board of White Box and formerly the Senior Curator at the Jerome A Cohen and Joan Lebold Cohen Center for Visual Arts. He was named the Chief Curator of four art fairs including the AD ART Show at Sotheby’s and the World Trade Center, New York and the Accessible Art Fair. As part of this he developed and executed the first city wide digital art fair, partnering with corporate sponsors including Systech Systems and NBC Universal. Over 13 million people viewed the fair. He has curated over twenty exhibitions, including Jeffrey Hargrave, Escape Route, at the Bronx Museum. He has been awarded Fellowships from the Kossak Foundation, Creative Capital, The New York Foundation for the Arts and the United States State Department. He is currently represented by: Gallerie Rasch in Germany, Marat Guelman in Russia and the Balkans, and David Richard Gallery the Americas.
Associated Artist
Associated Exhibitions
- Isaac Aden The Numinous Sublime
Extended
January 26, 2022 - March 3, 2022
MORE INFO
Associated News
-
September 10, 2023
Isaac Aden
Yale University Radio
Brainard Carey
September 10, 2023
-
September 6, 2023
Isaac Aden: Pursuing the Sublime Experience
XIBT Magazine
By Chunbum Park
September 6, 2023
-
September 5, 2023
Isaac Aden The Numinous Sublime - Part ll
GalleriesNow
September 5, 2023 -
September 3, 2023
Press Release - Issac Aden The Numinous Sublime - Part ll -
July 24, 2023
Press Release - Isaac Aden The Numinous Sublime - Part l -
July 24, 2023
Five Things to Do in New York’s Art Scene July 24-28
Observer
Dan Duray July 24, 2023 -
February 2, 2022
Isaac Aden
The Numinous Sublime
GalleriesNow
February 2, 2022
-
May 15, 2021
Press Release - Isaac Aden -
March 20, 2021
New ethereal and atmospheric color paintings by Isaac Aden on view at David Richard Gallery
ArtDaily
March 20, 2021 -
March 16, 2021
Isaac Aden Immersion
GalleriesNow
March 16, 2021
-
October 28, 2020
Isaac Aden at David Richard Gallery
WhiteHot Magazine
October 28, 2020
Mark Bloch -
September 23, 2020
Isaac Aden: Vespers and Auroras
The Brooklyn Rail
David Carrier
September 23, 2020 -
September 8, 2020
Isaac Aden: Vespers and Auroras
GalleriesNow.net
September 8, 2020 -
August 21, 2020
Press Release - Isaac Aden - Vespers and Auroras