Monday, January 7 2013

The Paint Installation Project 2013 is the name of an exhibition by Dean Arlen, which is scheduled to open on January 17 at Medulla, 37 Fitt Street, Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain.

According to the gallery notes, “This investigation takes another turn by the use of the art gallery in the physical act of imprinting on to the walls through traditional forms of art making. In the act of painting the walls, art reconfigures meaning and transforms more than usual the politics of the white space. By placing the artwork on to the painted walls there is another performance of traditionalism of art making and presentation. The Paint Installation Project 2013 attempts a look at painting in the nuances of modernity, contemporary art politics and traditionalism. The Paint Installation Project is looking at the “Offness” and bringing it into position.”

The artist himself is quoted as saying, “The idea of exploring the living space has consumed me since returning from the Ontario College of Art and Design, which I attended on a Commonwealth Fellowship.”

At college, Arlen pursued a multi-disciplinarian approach to sculpture, through installation art, which further developed his jewelery studies at John D Technical Institute and visual arts diploma completed at the University of the West Indies.

On returning to Trinidad and Tobago, he embarked on “using our living space for art and design.” He said the most memorable project was the UWI Sculptural Project/The One Day Symposium 2006-2010 the Sculptural Playground (In development). “The projects that I engage in are extensions of my studio practice where my collages and assemblage paintings have allowed me to create an urban philosophical art and design language that has strengthened my resolve to reinterpret them into my very own urban and rural spaces,” Arlen said.

He continued, “My recent exploration of the living space through the AlterEgo Project, which is the presentation of 15 original built pieces of furniture, which looks at the art of production and the alternative artist’s operation within community and state. The Paint Installation Projects exemplifies these concepts in serious free form.”

The exhibition continues until Thursday February 7. An artist talk will be held Thursday January 24 from 7 pm to 9 pm.