Assunta Sera: Measured Ground    May 7 - Jun 18, 2005

Assunta Sera’s work has shifted and grown throughout the years. Her preoccupation with spatial elements that evoke thoughts of memory, passage and time have always been a constant. She adjusts space, light and color within her canvas to manipulate and interpret her personal experiences into a much greater universal experience. In her most recent work, Sera’s concern for the formalistic elements of the division of space takes on a greater resonance. The audience is left to ponder her topographical views as she distills the details of the land at a distance revealing a more organized, uniform pattern harmonious unto itself.

The element of light literally sheds a blanket of clarity on Sera’s predominantly large-scaled canvases. For Sera, light acts as a facilitator to organize and unify complex space. The reflection of the light source is frequently obscured in a backdrop of a geometrically fashioned haze, which allows the foreground imagery -often some variation on a circular form- to operate within the painting’s orbit.

A blurred line between pure abstraction and a realistic interpretation further propels Sera’s work. This tightrope of deliberate tension is further magnified through a close inspection of her employment of color. Like the master colorist Titian, Sera forces her palette to its extreme. Her color approach yields a command of spatial volume to expand or contract a given area. Intertwined, side-by-side, layer upon layer color becomes a testament to her inextricable interpretation of her environment and her response to it . Ideally we discover, and rediscover, Sera’s art is from the subconscious ultimately leading us down a path of constant reflection.

“Measured Ground” marks Sera’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. A reception for the artist will be held at the Gallery on Saturday, May 7th from 5 to 7 PM.