glen rubsamen - 2004

Alfonso Artiaco gallery is glad to announce the opening of Glen Rubsamen's show �Euphoric, Narcotic and pleasantly hallucinant� on 13 th May, the artist will be present.

Glen Rubsamen, an American artist, born in 1957 in Hollywood, California, will present at the Alfonso Artiaco gallery four large canvases and medium-sized drawings inspired by Neapolitan landscapes, created for the spaces of Piazza dei Martiri.

Glen Rubsamen's paintings represent views of sunsets, where the bright tones of the sky contrast with figures deliberately left in the shade. Trees, street lamps and buildings stand out against the background of the sky captured in the moment of transition between day and night.

In the works of Glen Rubsamen it can be observed the desire to restore photographic frames by means of painting. The American artist plays with the idea of photographic simulation. In his views, in fact, the figures always remain in the shade as if to suggest undeveloped negatives while the clear perspective cuts given to each painting recall photographic shots or cinematographic shots.

The evolution of Rubsamen's work denotes a documentary interest in the representation of typical images of great intensity drawn from landscapes: sunrises, sunsets, trees of all kinds and of any latitude. These characteristics combine the absence of people, the lack of defined spatial-temporal references, creating an atmosphere of stillness and suspension. However, in order to dilute an easy reference to a late romanticism, which can be deduced from the choice of the views, the subjects and the landscape imprint of his paintings, Rubsamen chooses ironic titles for his exhibitions. Furthermore, he insinuates in each of his works strong contrasts between the figures left in the shade and the intense colors of the skies, as well as oppositions between the same figurative elements sought both in the natural world and in the urban landscape.

glen rubsamen - 2004