Simchowitz Gallery is pleased to present Recreational Behavior, an exhibition of new work by Brian Lotti. This is the artist’s first presentation with the gallery.
Lotti’s paintings invite us into a space where fantastical colors combine with moments of leisure and athleticism. Alternating between action and repose, they imagine a multi-hued world where we engage in activities outside of our quotidian realms. Each image is anchored in the artist’s real-world observations, whether it is a still taken from filmed footage or a quick plein-air sketch in the park.
The idea of public space weaves itself through the works presented here. Whether looking at a park or a court, Lotti explores these arenas of public exchange, highlighting their vitality and necessity as a part of modern urban life. As players, as spectators, as flâneurs, the figures that populate his compositions breathe life into their surrounding landscapes, taking full advantage of the opportunity to spread their limbs and enjoy the fresh air.
Lotti is nevertheless a painter largely concerned with the formal sensibilities of what he creates. Color plays a vital role – between the glowing auras that hug his characters and the polychromed impressionistic scenes, his work reaches for an alchemy of the sublime. In compositions such as Ladies Court in Pink and Green, large swaths of pigment engage with the history of color field painting and transcend their representational bounds to emerge as moments of pure emotion.
Moving between analytical decisions and intuitive modes of creation, Lotti works within various western art histories and creates work grounded in tradition yet unmistakably contemporary. His expressive use of color and painterly strokes bring us into his world, where we can pause for a moment and appreciate the space around us.
Recreational Behavior opens on July 10, 2021 and will run through July 31, 2021.