Joan Belmar's 'Chords' at Addison/Ripley Fine Art
Addison/Ripley Fine Art is exhibiting the paintings and work on paper of Joan Belmar from September 12 through October 25, 2014. Opening reception for the artist is Friday, September 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.
The work of Joan Belmar has much in common with that of the great Uruguayan Constructivist, Joaquín Torres García. Both travelled extensively from their birthplaces in the Southern Cone developing and refining their eyes, both of their works move fluidly through two and three dimensional space. Each of these painters developed a distinctive, influential style and palette but was unafraid to experiment outside of those bounds. Coincidentally Belmar recently spent several weeks in Montevideo, Torres Garcia's home town, with Take Me To The River, a project which paired nine artists working in the United States with six peers working in Uruguay.
In Chords, his first solo exhibition at Addison/Ripley, Belmar continues to refine and innovate with works in large and small scale, paintings both intimate and grand. Although circles are a common visual motif for the painter, they are also merely a stepping off point, a framework on which to hang a multidimensional imagination. Referencing maps and grids, suggesting nets and constellations, at once flat and layered, Belmar's recent paintings in acrylic, ink and gouache are intricately composed and balanced, musical in the sense of the series' name, symphonic in their complexity.
Addison/Ripley Fine Art is located at 1670 Wisconsin Avenue in Upper Georgetown at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Reservoir Road.