About
Anthony Chase's plaster paintings are the culmination of years spent creating artisanal venetian walls for his clients. Deciding to evolve his practice into creating individual paintings, Chase uses the techniques he has honed and brings a bold sense of form, texture, and luminosity to the work.
Photo: Nini Ordoubadi
In this new body of work, Anthony Chase is investigating surface, texture and the materiality of his chosen medium, Italian lime plaster. Each work will often go through several incarnations as he applies and removes plaster, re-working and re-ordering elements until the compositions are fully realized. He has taken inspiration from antiquated, weathered walls encountered on trips around the world, seeking to interpret and re-imagine by troweling, scraping and sanding the surface. By incorporating powder pigments and aggregates of marble chip, he introduces color and sheen to his compositions. His use of form includes both abstract shapes and representational figures, sometimes both within the same painting.
A sensibility of quiet contemplation unites much of the work in this series. Simplicity, balance with an element of tension and the use of complementary tones have been the mainstay of Chase’s work since he began creating with plaster in his art practice. In other pieces he plays with brightly colored geometric shapes or figures that might resemble cave paintings. Drawn to works of abstract minimalism he cites Myron Stout, Robert Ryman and Yun Hyong-Kuen as influences, as well as the visionary paintings of Forest Bess.
Several of the works feature celestial bodies in the night sky, highly burnished to achieve a luminosity that changes in intensity depending on the viewing angle. Drawing on his experiences as a long-time sailor, Chase captures the awe-inspiring moments he spent under the night sky at sea, rendering black voids offset by refracted light. These celestial paintings are deeply rooted in the tradition of expressing the Sublime in art and literature.
Bio
Anthony Chase was born in South Africa and studied Psychology and Political Science at the University of Cape Town, followed by a post graduate course in Theatre Directing. He emigrated to the US in 1983 where he embarked on a career in film making and is the recipient of a Bessie Award and an NEA Fellowship. The Museum of Modern Art acquired two of his short films for their permanent collection in 2017. Over the last eight years he has been making plaster paintings, receiving commissions of his work by both private individuals and public companies. Hawk + Hive exhibited his work in 2021 and 2022. His upcoming solo show opens in August 2024.