Dan Perkins and Alejandro Pintado, "Material/Ethereal"

Dan Perkins and Alejandro Pintado discuss their new works in "Material/Ethereal". Moderated by Amanda Jirón-Murphy.

In "Material/Ethereal", Baltimore-based painter Dan Perkins and Mexico City-based artist Alejandro Pintado dissect and re-contextualize the visual and social histories that surround depictions of constructed and natural spaces from the 19th-century to the present day. Pintado and Perkins interrupt Romantic landscapes and interior spaces with luminous geometric forms, graphic patterns and trompe l'oeil effects, creating destabilized, artificial spaces where materials and forms morph and shift. By reversing hierarchies of foreground and background and making incongruous compositional choices, both artists upend pictorial conventions and invite viewers to consider painting's inherent falsity while acknowledging its potential as a catalyst for communication and ideation.