Steven Carrelli

Steven Carrelli works primarily in painting and drawing. Many of his works simultaneously use and subvert the practices of tromp-l'oeil by suggesting illusion of space, then throws that illusion within the same composition. The curtains represented in these paintings play multiple roles. They act as a figure, a ground, a backdrop, a partition, a lush symbol of authority, a decoration, a convincing illusion, a dissolving ghost image, a remnant of the past, and a surface onto which we project our associations. Likewise, the paintings themselves shift perceptually between space and flat surface, appearing and disappearing, revealing and concealing.

His most recent body of work, Mirage, references both “The Ambassadors” by Holbein and “Narcissus” by Caravaggio, combining direct perceptual experience and art historical imagery.

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