Cody & Gino

Gino De Dominicis currently has a striking exhibit through February 9, 2009 at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. It highlights his two-dimensional works focused on the figure and constraints of the face in various forms of small sculpture, drawings and paint.
While his paintings are rich with figurative subject matter, De Dominicis use of material is quite bare. Tempera paint and pencil govern the basic material use and all reside on either canvas or board. He rarely uses more than two or three contrasting colors and keeps the figures to a minimal representation. The pieces range from small poster-sized works to largescale paintings on bright gold backgrounds.
Through further research on the artists, it can be seen that he often references mythical kings and deities such as Gilgamesh of Sumeria and Uryashi, the Hindu goddess of beauty. He was fascinated by the idealism of immortality and beauty, representing this examination in his figurative work. De Deominicis takes the human facial structure and morphs it, elongating and compression the features in an abstract representation. Occasionally he will even omit certain qualities of the face. These are paired with surreal figures with tiny bent hands and organic disproportionate bodies. There is an elegance in his study of the human form and how the paint reads on the canvas.

One piece in particular stuck out to me. It is a simple outline of a large triangle painted on the floor of the gallery. The playful title reads “I am sure that you (and you always will) be inside or outside of the triangle”. This witty piece is strikingly different from any of the other wotks presented in the exhibit. It draws awareness to personal and individual space, as well as public space within the gallery through the title alone.

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