Fever Pitch
“We live in a rainbow of chaos.” -Paul Cezanne
MIAMI, FL—Mindy Solomon Gallery is pleased to present ‘Fever Pitch,’ an exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Ali Smith. Smith’s Miami debut, ‘Fever Pitch’ includes both large-scale paintings and a range of smaller works created in 2014 and 2015. The first show in Mindy Solomon Gallery’s new location at Little River, 8397 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami. An Opening Reception with the artist will take place Saturday, September 12th, from 6-9pm; the exhibition is on view through October 16th.
Doubling its footprint in the new location, the gallery now offers two simultaneous exhibition spaces: one dedicated to exhibiting its national and international artist roster, and the other to showcasing special projects focused on local work and artistic engagement. “Experiencing the vibrant abstract works of these two artists juxtaposed in the two new spaces embodies the exciting possibilities that our move to Little River will enable,” Director Mindy Solomon explains.
Ali Smith’s paintings in ‘Fever Pitch’ mark a departure from her previous work. Experimenting with larger, more gestural swaths of color and scale shifts, the compositions explore a new openness in which forms are less constrained and paint is applied in raw, lush marks. Pushing the intuitive line against more carefully edited forms and developed shapes, Smith utilizes color as a potent form of communication.
Ranging in size from ambitious to intimate, ‘Fever Pitch’ spotlights Smith’s range and desire to give the viewer a complex, multi-layered perceptual experience. Drawing on the history of abstraction while often breaking down or remixing, Smith toys with elements from art history as seen through her eyes: “My new series of paintings combines intuitive drawing with more slowly drawn-out imagery, which collides to create complex, almost map-like surfaces. With this latest work, there are a variety of surfaces—sculptural, flat, atmospheric, gestural application against intricate marks—that create a visual flip-flop or contradiction, a constant theme in my work.”
About Ali Smith
Ali Smith (b. 1976) lives and works in Long Beach, CA. She earned a BS in Studio Art at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, studying in Paris for her junior year, and went on to complete an MFA in Drawing and Painting at California State University, Long Beach. Her work has been featured in solo showings across the US, including Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, and Houston. Recent group shows include “Defining Abstraction” at the Ringling College of Art, Sarasota, FL; “Here Now,” Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “Neo-Chroma: Large-scale non-objective painting,” Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ;
“The OsCene,” Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; “Art for Art’s Sake: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation,” Marjorie Museum, UNLV (traveling); “Millennial Abstraction,” Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA; and “Chasm of the Supernova,” Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA. Her work is in held in public and private collections including the Weisman Foundation, the Laguna Art Museum, the Progressive Collection, and the private collection of Richard Prince. Smith is a recipient of the Hoff Award and the City of Long Beach professional artist grant.
