Pia Fries

CHRISTOPHER GRIMES GALLERY will present new works by Pia Fries from November 30th to January 11th. A public reception will be held on Saturday, November 30th from 6 to 8 PM. The gallery is located at 916 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica.

Pia Fries, a Swiss painter living in Dusseldorf, will exhibit numerous works on panel in her characteristically exuberant style. Her work is known for dramatic impasto techniques and for surfaces that bristle with vibrant colors. Typically the artist uses a pale background to set off areas of thick, pulsating colors that show boldness and confidence.

Fries applies brilliant pigments÷often directly from the tube÷with brush, roller, palette knife, and other instruments. She paints, rolls, pours, drips, squeezes, presses, kneads, layers, and brushes the materials, sometimes removing parts of the masses of paint again. Colors are swirled, poked, molded, and even bound together in rhythmic sequences. Eventually, this extremely direct and powerful use of paint establishes extravagant surfaces creating sculptural depth, which captures the viewerâs awareness. As the critic Paul Good stated, ãPainting lives on here to the fullest extent, the art for the eye so often proclaimed dead arises powerfully once again.ä

A student of Gerhard Richter, Fries has emerged with a unique style that is technically exciting. Fries has been included in Beau Monde, the 2001 SITE Santa Fe Biennial curated by Dave Hickey. Her work has been shown throughout Europe. This will be her first solo exhibition at CHRISTOPHER GRIMES GALLERY.

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Pia Fries