Natalie Alper is an artist whose paintings and drawings, though abstract, reject a restrictive formalist construct, where flatness of pictorial space and any referential connections are excluded.  Her work addresses complexities of space and dynamism that connect to both historical spatial structure, such as Tintoretto’s, and mannerist painting.  They consider ideas of the here and now in science and ideas in chaos theory where initial conditions and their permutations lead to unexpected outcomes.  She begins with a calligraphic pencil grid of writing that alludes to language and is visible in the interstices between the large swaths of color.  Her color, with its use of metallic pigment combined with the chromatic range she uses, is a unique melding of the elemental and the artificial.  Alper has opened new and exciting options for abstract painting.

 

Courtesy of nataliealper.com