One of our
favorite local painters, AJ Fries, will be opening a show of new paintings on
Friday, November 6th, at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center.
On top of
his renditions of fast food packaging and sex toys, Fries’ new show comprises a lot of what he does, including land and sky scapes. When
asked what the series is about, Fries said it was best described in Hallwalls
Visual Arts Curator John Massier’s comment as follows:
In a series of
new black and white paintings, Buffalo artist AJ Fries delves deep into
contemplative and seemingly banal instances in a gesture to distill the
temporal reality of “now” into an ever-expanding moment of beauty and
sublimity.
In patent
Fries style, he also said it disturbed him that Massier described it better
than he could, but that is an indication of each doing what he does best; Fries
paints, Massier assesses.
According to
Fries, the title of this particular collection comes from the proximity of his
Seneca Street studio that involves a fire station and a police car barn. “I
paint and concentrate on detail rather than run to the window every time I hear a siren. And then
there’s that whole mythological siren thing…”
At any rate,
the show is not to be missed. Get there at 7PM, and you’ll be able to
hear the artist talk about his work. Knowing Fries, I can only say that
his patter and humor, set against the breathtaking reality of his images is
both telling and ironic in its dissimilitude. Translation: you’ll enjoy
it immensely because, with Fries, talk can go very odd, very quickly. One can only hope
he relives his many days of driving around Buffalo with a camera duct-taped to
his steering wheel for reference shots, one of which turned into a painting of
the view from the top of the Skyway.
At Hallwalls from November 6th to December 18th.
Image: 16 Skies, acrylic on canvas.