ANDREA DASHA REICH: Flying Colors and Resin Renaissance
Open at Alfstad& Contemporary
Artist Displays Latest Series of Resin Art Works
SARASOTA, FL – Internationally acclaimed artist, Andrea Dasha Reich unveils her new body of work in a dual exhibition at Alfstad& Contemporary: Flying Colors and Resin Renaissance. Inspired by the organic shapes of nature, Flying Colors features Reich’s new Fusion painting style, as well as many colorful sculptures and shapes. Resin Renaissance, an installation debuting the gallery’s new “Backspace,” displays gently folding sculptural fragments that emit a creamy effervesce, reminiscent of the flowing garments adorning statues in the Uffizi or Galleria dell’Accademia. The shows open Friday evening, March 4th, and run through April 1st.
“Color, color, color,” says Sam Alfstad, standing in the gallery’s front space. “The impact of Andrea Dasha Reich’s work is immediate and stunning. There is no way anyone can walk in the gallery and see her work – hanging from the walls and rafters – and not break into a smile.”
Employing her distinctive resin techniques, Reich has created a new range of work for this exhibition, including free-form sculptures – “Tails,” “Tubes,” “Crumples” and “Strata.” Displayed as hanging pieces, wall installations and stand-alone forms, the work draws viewers into a world of beauty and joyful vitality.
“These pieces are three dimensional and explosively colorful,” says Reich.
Reich’s Fusion Series, also on display, extends her painting style in new and exciting directions. Still using the multi-layered technique of her early career, the new works are prints on canvas covered with multiple layers resins, acrylics, inks and dyes.
“The most evident aspect of Andrea Dasha Reich’s work is its seemingly unrehearsed look, its improvisational, ebullient feel,” writes Dominique Nahas, a curator and critic based in New York City. “This spontaneous aspect is matched by the same freshness that punctuates Matisse’s work: one that is filled with presentness, with immediacy and with aliveness all the while preserving that balance of universality and particularity, ephemerality and timelessness.”
In the gallery’s new “Backspace,” an entirely different motif is on display. While Reich's work is famous for its exuberant colors and abstraction, these works are a departure. She has blanched her resin process and formed delicate folds that echo classical sculpture. The results are pure-white fragments, shards of shape, as if long-lost pieces of the Pietà had been newly discovered.
Born in Prague, educated at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Reich initially worked in fashion and textile design in New York City, later moving to fine art and establishing her studio in Sarasota. Her work now hangs in private and corporate collections around the world.