Lori Esposito: Painting

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© Lori Esposito
As a child my drawings of real people and events were embellished with the fantastic which I identified as an essential player in extracting that which otherwise remains hidden. Today, the fantasy realms in my paintings function as a safe haven, or symbolic portal from which darker or unresolved subject matter can emerge.

My current work consists of acrylic and water based media on Aluminum panel. This smooth metallic surface feels like painting on a mirror, where as white or opaque surfaces feel illustrative or presentational. On aluminum the paint feels separate as it floats on the repellent surface and dries like ice freezes. The watery medium settles like an island since it cannot be absorbed by anything besides itself and air.

Paintings are inhabited with plant-like iconography - vessels that take on personas, or transform into landmarks emblematic of a specific time and place. They consist of multiple parallels. There, in the pictorial space descriptions of psychological terrain can be cacophonous, yet sublime. Paintings construct allegorical fantasies and resemblances of my past to memorialize significant events of a non-linear nature.

Some elements serve as sequential bridges that actively lead to other possibilities or lay dormant beneath the surface: scribbles mask plant bodies, horizons become subdued - freeing neighboring figures from the ground. Paintings become stages for visual improvisation. An outlet emerges for multiple, co-existing interpretations.


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