Tom Uttech: Early Paintings On view April 25 - June 14 Reception for the artist Saturday, April 27, from 3 - 5 pm Conversation with the artist & Jennifer Samet at 4 pm on the 27th Read Jennifer Samet's interview with Tom Uttech in Hyperallergic's Beer With a Painter series

Tom Uttech , Feeding the Pitcher Plant , 1971, oil on linen, 64 x 70 inches Alexandre Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works by Tom Uttech from the early years of his career. The exhibition is comprised of ten paintings from the 1970s and related charcoal drawings, all based on the artist’s highly imagined forays into the northern woods of Wisconsin and Ontario. Included is work that was selected for the 1975 Whitney Biennial, which brought Uttech his first national attention. Unlike Uttech’s work of the last twenty years, densely populated with realistic woodland creatures, these early large-scale, luminous paintings are highly imagined, even surreal. A phosphorous glow suffuses these magical landscapes, inhabited by biomorphic creatures and plants. Among them, we see anthropomorphic trees reaching into a technicolor sunset, a half-woman half-animal spirit hovering above an illuminated lake, and a mystical deer-headed creature floating on a pool of water among orange trout.   Click here to read press release Click here to read online catalog

Tom Uttech , Skull River Diptych (detail) , 1976, oil on linen, 75 1/2 x 59 1/4 inches (each panel) "Uttech’s image underscores the sensation some feel when they are the only human being alone deep in the forest. The increasing awareness that everything surrounding you is alive, is watching, is looking at you as you look at it. Each place you look reveals a shifted vista, a changed panorama, a living ecosystem constantly moving and growing, changing before your eyes." -Robert Cozzolino Catalogue with text by Robert Cozzolino available for pre-order

Tom Uttech, 1973

American Art always on view by appointment  Focus on Vincent Smith’s Paintings from the 1970s

Vincent Smith , Apple Pies for the Kids , 1971, oil and sand on canvas, 48 x 38 1/2 inches "Undaunted by the difficulties one encounters in a racially repressive society in which many African Americans often struggle daily to live above the poverty line, Vincent Smith, like his life long friend, Jacob Lawrence, has chosen art as the vehicle through which he speaks to the world airing his concerns about our humanity as well as our inhumanity to each other. Smith's art examines, chronicles and visually comments upon an important segment of American history thereby singling him out as one of the few remaining American artists whose work is truly social commentary in nature." -Dr. David C. Driskell

Vincent Smith, The Super , 1972, oil, sand and collage on canvas, 55 x 40 inches

Alexandre Gallery | 212-755-2828 | www.alexandregallery.com