12ozProphet Exclusive: Van Arno Studio Visit

Preparing for his solo show this weekend Saturday, October 13, 2012, Corey Helford’s new gallery CHG Circa presents “Ice Loves Rococo,” featuring the new paintings of Van Arno in chromatic Rococo vision, his third solo show with Corey Helford.

“The Rococo era followed the overblown, overdecorated Baroque period, but put a more informal, comic and asymmetrical spin on design, without loosing any of the bling of the Baroque,” says Van Arno of the exhibition’s theme.

Radiating Van Arno über-mannerism, “The Three Graces” oil work reveals his Rococo persuasion. “It is traditionally a pastoral scene with beautiful women dancing. I’ve chosen to update it by having these ladies doing a ska-type mosh pit dance, in a maelstrom of birds and squirrels. The girls are Grace Kelly, Grace Jones and Grace Slick.” Van Arno’s divas of excess resonate a visual fugue, dispelling nature with mayhem and metamorphosis, chaotic graces appealing with painterly mischief.

“My focus continues to be on figurative painting, and I have revived some themes I have not been working with lately: pre-Columbian, biblical, allegorical and symbolic,” says Van Arno. In his painting “Hagar And Ishmael Flee The Bible,” Abraham’s Egyptian concubine, Hagar, and Arabic son, Ishmael, are transformed into the possessed figures of Van Arno’s blond wife and son. “I love it because that’s what Peter Rubens would have done.” Van Arno’s figures channel the transcending play of Rococo, an invocation of late Baroque composition, hallucinating allegories of contemporary expression.

“Ice Loves Rococo” will exhibit twelve oil paintings featuring a Van Arno figurative evolution of Rococo fusion, enhanced by the artist’s framework and a six foot Renaissance altar piece built by master carpenter Robert Borstrom, setting an exciting, new direction. Van Arno’s Rococo simply stated: “Because I wanted to paint Coco.” “Ice Loves Rococo” shines with religious vibrance, secular dreams and multiple personas, laced with pre-Columbian themes of the Mayan calendar “to celebrate the coming end of the final cycle.”

The opening reception for “Ice Loves Rococo” takes place Saturday, October 13 at CHG Circa. The reception is open to the public, and the exhibition will be on view through October 27, 2012.

Text: Via press release
Photos: Birdman