The Island of Art
"Joe McAleer's paintings engage us as participants in a complex perceptual game. Comprised of contrasting patterns of color, texture, and form, which fill the canvas from edge to edge, his restless abstractions elude a fleeting encounter. Rather, they absorb our attention with rhythmic structures and visual anomalies designed to stimulate and perplex our senses.
McAleer's kaleidoscopic abstractions have their basis in the humble Modernist's grid,......"
Joe Houston, Author "Optic Nerve, Perceptual Art of the 1960s"
Curator, Hallmark Art Collection
I have painted since I was a very young man. Making marks on the canvas, and giving material form to my personal perceptions of the world around me, is the most satisfying creative act I can imagine. Harold Rosenberg's observation about the daredevil aspect of modern painting has always felt seminal to me, an expression of my own philosophy. It's my own personal high wire act: a dangerous profession and a serious form of risk taking. I risk my ego and self-esteem every time I step in front of the easel. Yet it's this very aspect, the uncertainty of the process, that excites and challenges me. At moments I'm on the edge, hanging out there after hours of creative and physical work, knowing it could all crumble before my eyes. Failure is just a brush stroke away. Perhaps this embodies my view of the world now--it's what I have learned from a life time of sitting in front of a half-finished canvas, or a row of them against a studio wall, daring me to try something new and different. Or perhaps, the challenge is what attracted me to painting in the first place. Either way, it's why I paint. When I get it right, my art allows me to state, in no uncertain terms, my uniqueness in a world of seven billion people. Joe McAleer 2019
for inquires contact Susanna W Gold, Curator
610-368-6927
