Color has been said to be the embodiment of beauty and as the father of abstraction, Wassily Kandinsky has written, “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” LewAllen Galleries is pleased to present True Colors, an exhibition of Color Abstraction, including the works of Connie Connally, Joshua Elias, Sammy Peters, and Mark Pomilio.

Featuring a variety of rich, multi-layered surfaces of color, the works included in this exhibition offer variations of energetic rhythms, forms and shapes, and gestural lines that draw attention to the expressive qualities of each artist’s work.

Included within the exhibition is a showcase highlighting abstract expressionist paintings by Los Angeles artist, Joshua Elias, whose work is new to the gallery. He creates colorful narrative works that use polarities of color, harmonic forms, and disappearing lines that provide frameworks for his compositions. Thematically, his interests lay in the interstitial, the tone of the atmosphere, and the mythology of the story. Elias says of his work:

I make paintings. Often very bold oil paintings with brilliant colors and floating forms, dreamlike. I facilitate a journey for the viewer. A journey of visions, different dimensions, full of light and hidden caverns to remind them this journey is their journey.

Also included in True Colors are Sammy Peters’ paintings, which represent an unfettered convergence of color, shape, pattern, and texture, assembled in what appears as both creative improvisation and, at the same time, thoughtful construction. His canvases attract the eye with unexpected and engaging compositions of color blocks, variegated shadings, and an endless variety of elaborate shapes.

Connie Connally paints canvases of complex elegance, with imagery that merges representational landscape reference and evocative abstraction. Her poetic colorscapes, with their expressive brushwork, sweeping gestural marks, and animated cadence, reflect her passion for distilling the essence of her observations of nature.

Mark Pomilio’s art references the forces and geometries of the natural world, through delicate color and layered, expressive use of line. Mirroring the dynamic, interlocking systems that underlie the physical environment, Pomilio’s paintings are each self-contained universes of softly layered forms and fluid calligraphic lines.

My artistic interests are fueled by a desire to create artwork, which mirrors naturally occurring systems in our world. In ‘mirror’ I am referring more to ideas regarding physical processes rather than mimetic duplication. I find inspiration on a myopic level by attempting to imitate cell repetition and cloning. I have chosen to create imagery, which expresses a developmental process rather than an overt visual depiction.

(Mark Pomilio)