Elephantine Apparition. 2010-11, Oil on canvas. 32 3/8 x 36 1/4", Photo by Tracey Harnish, courtesy Rosamund Felsen Gallery
It's a curious mix that Lavi Daniel conjures in painting and sculpture. Both are about density but in very different ways. The paintings use light to push some shapes forward while others dangle in space. Forms are a cross between organic and geometric which adds to the ambiguity of their existence as something tangible. There is the feel of light coming over the horizon, a shelf that recedes into a crevice in a cave, a rock formation that juts from a wall.
I Wanted to Wonder... 2010-11, Oil on canvas. 34 1/4 x 28 1/8", Photo by Tracey Harnish Courtesy Rosamund Felsen Gallery
These things are only alluded to, while color is cool and vibrant, something you might come across in wanderings where the average human does not tread. The sculptures are surprising because they are mud-like masses, a shrub that has mutated thickly with unnatural color. Where the paintings shimmer and visually hint at depth, the sculptures are dense and visceral, irresistible, they beg you to touch them, feel them, roll around with them.
Tectonic Eruptions 2. 2005-11, Oil paint, wood table. 16 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 12 3/4"; Photo by Tracey Harnish courtesy Rosamund Felsen Gallery
While the color in the paintings is very ordered, the three-dimensionality of the corpulent masses of the sculptures are messes of color mixtures. They seem to encase every color nature has provided the eye with and then go onto experiment with various mergings and contrasts. It is especially interesting viewing when you look at a sculpture that is paired with a painting in relief. The juxtaposition of the two creates high contrast yet also adds to the complexity of each.
Tectonic Eruptions 3. 2005-11, Oil paint, wood table. 14 3/4 x 10 x 9 1/2"; Photo by Tracey Harnish courtesy Rosamund Felsen Gallery
The show runs through August 13 at Rosamund Felsen Gallery.
For more images go to www.laartdiary.com.