ABSTRACTIONS:
THE FILMS & PAINTINGS OF ANTONIO FERRERA

September 6 – October 4, 2013

Opening Reception: 

September 6, 7-9 PM

The IMC Lab + Gallery


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

New York, New York – August 27, 2013 - The IMC Lab + Gallery is pleased to present “Abstractions: The Films & Paintings of Antonio Ferrera”, which will be on view from September 6-October 4, 2013. This will be Ferrera’s first solo exhibition and the premiere of his hand-painted film series Birth Cycles 1-4.

A painting is a...

transformation
force of nature
window
universe and cell
life and death
new and old...

Painting is endless. Painting is freedom. Painting is me being born all the time.
-Antonio Ferrera

Antonio Ferrera has worked primarily as a documentary filmmaker, and in 2008 he won a Peabody Award for his film “The Gates” about the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's monumental installation in New York’s Central Park. His films have been featured in museums around the country, including the National Gallery and LACMA .

For his first solo exhibition, Ferrera has created an immersive installation of projected, hand-painted films that he considers to be living paintings, flush with color and movement. His work is an indexical expression of his emotional and psychological states.

Birth Cycles 1-4 was created out of Ferrera’s desire to make an aesthetic journey through paint and color, movement and time. Using the rarely seen medium of 35 mm film, Ferrera repositions it as an object by painting directly onto the clear celluloid filmstrips. He then digitizes these paintings on high definition video to facilitate the large scale of projections and the immersive experience of installation. Ferrera will also be showing photographs of his hand-painted films.

This progression between old and new media, painting, sculpture, film, and photography all occurs within this one body of work that withstands easy categorization. Ferrera’s influences include microbiology and quantum physics, which is evident in the intricate, cell-like structures of his imagery. By blending a scientific and a romantic sensibility, Ferrera finds a sublime form of abstraction through the interaction and exchange of energy and matter with color and beauty.