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Link to the artist's site: http://www.cristirinklin.com/
Press release: PDF here
Press images here (large files for print)
Cristi Rinklin
Boundless at FP3
FP3 is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Boston artist Cristi Rinklin. Working in a medium with a
long history, Rinklin looks at how the carefully constructed illusionistic spaces of her antecedents were used to
inspire a sense of awe in the audience. The reverence of these viewers depended on a firsthand experience of vast
expanses of land, sea or sky as well as healthy respect for Nature’s fury. Cristi observes that as a contemporary artist
she spends increasingly more and more time looking at virtual worlds and cinematic versions of new fantastic
environments experienced online or in the theater. How does this new, often computer generated visual territory
impact the ability of painting to inspire a comparable level of awe?
The artist begins to answer the question by pointing out how, “when our ability to imagine visual knowledge beyond
what we see with our own eyes becomes augmented by ... technology, our imaginary vision for what is dramatic,
awesome, and sublime becomes warped by [that] technology.” Cristi Rinklin’s technique and imagery embrace and
mimic this warping by applying tools like Adobe Photoshop to distort intermediate camera snapshots of her sketches
which she uses to produce her large scale, often mixed media paintings. Transparency, airbrush, acrylic and oils are
used to create whatever visual effect Rinklin chooses to transform the space of a particular painting.
The exaggerated blurs that Rinklin produced by using Photoshop filters to expand the illusion of depth are sharply
contrasted by flat graphic shapes. In color and style these contradictions update the Baroque opulence of deep,
cloud filled heavens creating edgy, contemporary versions. Lapis blues and golden sunlight are replaced by fuchsia,
turquoise or blaze orange. Brush strokes vanish replaced by semitransparent shapes that mimic vinyl stickers and
linear details that have the illustrative feel of a graphic novel. Heavier fleshy forms morph vaporous clouds into
ambiguous, visceral anatomy. Around these shapes explosions and deep space (at times outer space) allow the
semi-organic forms and winding ribbons of color to relate to dynamic computer generated graphics of the cinema.
In addition to Tiepolo and other Italian and European masters, Rinklin references Fredrick Church and the expansive
paintings of the American Sublime to foreground her depictions of the multiple realities that an idealized landscape
represents in an era where suburban expansion threatens the existence of that landscape. The artist notes that,
“...my images present this clash of multiple realities, and the suggestion of a world constantly in flux both physically
and psychologically. In some ways, the painting itself, and all its warping and regurgitation of its antecedents
becomes a kind of metaphor for all this.”
– James Hull, Curator FP3 Gallery
Cristi Rinklin, After the end of the begining (2009)
oil and acrylic on dibond aluminum 48 x 84 inches
Oscar Palacio at FP3
Re-represented
January 23 - April 25, 2009
Download or view PDF of Press Release:Here
Opening Reception: Friday January 23, 6 - 9 PM
Curated by: James Hull
Address: 346 Congress Street - Lobby Level (at A Street)
(Fort Point) Boston, MA. 02210
Gallery hours: Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 12 - 7 PM , Saturday 12 - 4 PM
Artist's website:http://www.oscarpalacio.net/history_revisited/history_revisited.html
FP3 property website, location, directions
October 17, 2008 - January 17, 2009 ( extended one week!)
John Guthrie
