Aaron Parazette
Irregular Quadrilaterals

Talley Dunn Gallery
November 12 – December 17, 2016

Derived from the artist’s “Color Key” paintings, this series of striking, shaped canvases offer different variations of four-sided forms on which the artist considers formal relationships of color, line, and shape. Parazette creates a visual play of spatial depth and flatness through a skilled use of vibrant color combinations and geometric forms. With the bold, diagonal lines in the painting Stranger, Parazette builds a pyramidal form with a rectangle that seemingly projects out from and recedes into the canvas, its pin stripes creating a paradoxical emphasis on both the painted surface and the illusion of space.

Inspired by the hard-edged abstraction of Frank Stella and the shaped supports of Ellsworth Kelly, Parazette builds his paintings meticulously by adding layer upon layer of acrylic until each plane of color is flawless, its edges accentuated with precise pin stripes. While Parazette’s paintings respond to the tradition of geometric abstraction in American art, they also reference west coast surf culture with the popular practice of pin striping both surf boards and custom cars.