Dillon Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Alexander Kaletski’s paintings, “Contemplation,” opening November 3rd.

Over the course of his career, Kaletski has achieved renown for the incredible cast of characters he has created, a humorous, satirical, spontaneous, tough, whimsical, piquant and startling range of modern urban humanity. Sometimes overlooked in the tremendous presence and aliveness of this flood of individuals are the wildly innovative and complex painting strategies the artist has employed to achieve his ends. His new series “Contemplation” re-focuses our attention on this aspect of the work by basing the entire series on an iconic tableau that the artist fashions into a type of universal composition. Through this strategy, Kaletski reveals the infinite variety and energy that can emerge from single source.

The scenario used represents a distillation of many compositions: a seated male figure on the right—the artist, perhaps—bust framed by a window and drapery as in a classical portrait, stares diagonally across the composition while conveying an inward focus. He is both relaxed and alert, gaze encompassing but not caught by the two seductive, dancing female figures on the left. They sway in interlocked harmony and rhythm, like two parts of the three graces, or are they sirens? The vibrations of life radiating from their movements could represent the sensual energy that inspires and propels the world or the distractions of the world that lure us from the inner path of creativity. This dichotomy is echoed by the man’s posture, his right arm curving across his body in a gesture of inwardness that also complements perfectly the raised arm and lovely contour of the waist to his immediate right. Is he meditating or joining in the dance?

This repetition of form is in stark contrast to the variety of materials used, ranging from canvas to newspaper, cardboard, upholstery and burlap to wood and wallpaper. For the last 25 years, Kaletski has actively explored the myriad ways paint can be expressively applied to varied supports, culminating in the rich tapestry of expression that is “Contemplation.”

Alexander Kaletski’s paintings are in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Caldic Collection, Resnick Collection and Arthur Altschul Collection. They have been exhibited in numerous museums, including the Aldrich Museum, the Nassau County Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Minsk.

ALEXANDER KALETSKI

“I want to use the least to express the most,” states Alexander Kaletski. Whether in his economical painted line employed against scrumbled canvas surfaces or in the use of found materials in his renowned cardboards, Kaletski works with a fluent freedom that belies the rich layers of meaning in his art. After defecting from the Soviet Union in the early 1970s, Kaletski became enthralled with the high quality and abundance of disposable packing materials in the USA. For the light-pocketed young artist, these rich and varied materials provided stimulating components for the creative process. With a perceptive eye for the striking individual in the crowd, coupled with the confidence that engenders spontaneity, Kaletski’s art revels in flashbulb observations of the extraordinary incidents and individuals that enliven and populate our culture.

His paint and cardboard collage portraits display the spectacular, often riveting characters found in the urban environment of New York City. His use of logo-printed cardboard packaging materials guides his exploration into the themes of contemporary society. Beginning with simple commercial cardboard, Kaletski adds collage and paint, resulting in pieces that provoke, inform, and more often than not, amuse. In addition to the provocative images he produces, the viewer is confronted with the amplification of the logo or design remnant of the original product contained, as well as the cardboard itself, scarred, pitted and torn, now artfully reborn.

Kaletski is also a master of oil painting. He finds figuration and abstraction to be inseparable, and his canvases best demonstrate this. They have been described as a controlled structure of dripped paint that creates free-form geometric shapes, by using uneven and highly energized brush strokes. Kaletski utilizes abstraction to play upon ambiguous images, contradictions and surprises, allowing the viewer to follow his symbols and figures and decide for themselves what meaning coalesces from the whole.
 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

• 2011  Dillon Gallery, Contemplation, New York
• 2011  Raffeisen Bank, Cardboard People around the World, Vienna
• 2010  Dillon Gallery, Carton of Eden, New York City
• 2010  Kato Gallery Tokyo, From New York to Tokyo, Japan
• 2008  Dillon Gallery, Wet Dreams, New York City
  SCOPE Art Fair London, UK
   Lasandr-art Gallery Minsk, Belarus
• 2007  Dillon Gallery, Cardboard Castle, New York City
• 2005  Spike Gallery, White Rain, New York City
• 2003  Dillon Gallery, Headlines, New York City
   Gomez Gallery, American Breakfast, Baltimore, MD
• 2002  Nassau County Museum of Art, Cardboard Museum, New York
  Dillon Gallery, Out of the Box, New York City
• 2001  The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Cardboard Box, Connecticut
• 2000  Dillon Gallery,Women Only, New York City
• 1999  Dillon Gallery, Wallpaper Heroes, New York City
• 1998  Dillon Gallery, Nude Colony, New York City
• 1997  Dillon Gallery, Cardboard People, New York City
• 1995  Dillon Gallery, Wallpaper Heroes, New York City

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

• Caldic Collection, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Contemporary Museum of Miniature Art; Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• Linklaters and Paines; Corporate Collection; New York, NY.
• Szymanska Foundation, New York, NY.
• Dr. N.H. Burki, Bar & Karrer; Zurich, Switzerland
• P.J. Lewis Fine Art; Greenwich, CT.
• Nicholas F. Taubman Foundation; Roanoke, VA.