The Contemporary Art Modern Project will be kicking off the new year with three exhibitions running alongside each other in the gallery. In Gallery B artists Vincent Dion and Miami’s own Andrew Arocho, in a two man exhibition, explore color and perception through both confident colors and the abstract in Where Color Transports. Each of the three exhibitions offer the viewer to experience five different artistic expressions all reacting to the world in which they inhabit.
Opening January 3rd and running through the month, we also invite visitors to an Artist Talk on January 25 from 1:00 to 5:00 with an in-person interview with Jason Micheal Hackenwerth and Andrew Arocho where they will speak not only about their artworks and process but also their journey as artists.
Where artists Andrew Arocho and Vincent Dion meet is in their understanding of color as a means to effect a viewer. In the two man show: Where Color Transports, the viewer will see that although the use and application of color on their works greatly differ, their adherence to color, and its theory does not. Basically to understand color theory one has to adhere to certain expectations assigned to color, as color is closely linked to perception, which then is linked to one’s psyche. Added to the reliance on color perception, both artists in this exhibition, work in the abstract, thereby also relying on not only again the artist’s perception of color but also that of the viewer. Deciphering works revolving around perception in the abstract the artist relies upon certain colors that translate an emotion, often placing the colors into forms where the unconscious lives and sets associated meaning. Take for example, Dion’s piece: Local Commotion (2018), technically a work made from Acrylic, Gouache and Watercolor on Paper. The work dances in swirling colors that abstractly render the piece into a a tableau of what does seem to be confusion, but after taking some time to really look at and into the work - one is allowed to understand the colors make room for one’s own experience. There is also always the promise that out of confusion, or even chaos, order finds its path - other blooming into the wonderful. Looking at Andrew Arocho’s works one immediately notices his bright and bold colors. For example in Main Sail (2024), blue, red, orange and black all stand out on the work, in various shapes, possibly suggesting a warning of some sort - but with the title all meaning is swept in a new direction. Considering the purpose of a ‘main sail’ and how it help steer one through waters (the unconscious, perhaps) regardless of what nautical terrain it encounters, one can be rather confident it will get one to shore. The same safe harboring can be found in the work - that although its colors and their dependent meanings may suggest one thing - it is through the journey towards understanding one’s resilience that leaves the viewer newly refreshed and anchored.
