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Fritz Chesnut makes poured acrylic works on canvas that explore cosmic phenomena, geological formations and the topographical. With this new body of work he examines an interplay between space and material, decay and regeneration and macro and micro. His studio practice is analogous to geological evolution, where gravity and climate dictate form. In Chesnut’s work, chance and intention are equally relevant. He employs an intuitive process that allows for an interaction of paint based on subtle shifts in viscosity and accumulation. Acrylic, oil paint and water are poured and sprayed on a horizontally laid-flat canvas. As the paint coalesces, he intervenes by lifting and tilting, creating pools, ravines and fields of color. The enamel and acrylic paint resist, forming skins, blobs and shapes that drift and float on top of wet paint underneath.
Fritz Chesnut was born in 1973 in Santa Fe, New Mexico and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He received his BA from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1995 and his MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University in 1997. He has had solo exhibitions at c. nichols project, (Los Angeles), Country Club, (Los Angeles and Cincinnati), CULT/Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, (San Francisco) and Bellwether Gallery, (New York). His work has been seen in such venues as Public Fiction, Los Angeles, Pepin-Moore, Los Angeles, White Columns, New York, The Bronx Museum, New York, and Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, among many others. Recent projects include the LAXART façade, Los Angeles (January–April, 2014).
