Central Park Venus
Michael Price June 24 - July 30, 2005
New York based British artist Michael Price presents a hitherto unimaginable interpretation of Central Park; a park presided over by the archetypal figure 'Venus', the symbolic goddess of love.
Six large oil paintings from the past two years, titled 'Central Park Venus', present the artist's development of a chromatic nude inhabiting a landscape as an extended chromatic space. This original color concept relies on the chroma of the different natural and mineral pigment particle sizes to create volume or depth.
The artist hand-grinds all his colors from rocks and crystals and prepares them according to a variety of protocols.
Price, an expert on natural and mineral pigments, has published his research into the pigment preparation of the colors of the Renaissance palette in the journal ‘Leonardo’ (MIT press), and recently in ‘Artwatch UK’.
This truly luminous color transports the nudes to a transcendent other-worldly existence although the archetype of Venus stays firmly rooted in the transformed scenes of Central Park.
Venus reflects and amplifies the changing moods and spirit of the park. Each chromatic nude is painted either with lapis lazuli, azurite, malachite, cinnabar, orpiment or even a simple natural yellow ocher collected by the artist from rock outcrops in southern Utah. The vibrant color imbues the nudes with a freedom, beauty and dignity seldom experienced with this genre.
