Juxtapoz Magazine – It Goes to Show: Alvin Armstrong @ Anna Zorina Gallery, NYC

“I have usually been competitive,” Alvin Armstrong informed us this earlier Summer time. “I was not the swiftest or the strongest, but I could usually contend with the finest due to the fact my nature has generally been intense. Even if I was clueless, I knew that I would operate like a pet until there was improvement. It was like carrying blinders, concentrating on what was ahead and going forward. When I did anything and was dissatisfied with it, I did not keep there—I just worked at it once more right up until I was happy.”

Anna Zorina Gallery is happy to present It Goes to Show, Alvin Armstrong’s 2nd solo exhibition with the gallery. The show features the artist’s latest sequence of paintings that depict a expensive close friend, Miles, in candid poses of dance functionality. Alongside one another they use their selected media to convey a viscerally highly effective, personal narrative.

 The painting medium sets the phase for Armstrong and Miles to join in the flow of storytelling, the two come to be immersed in conveying raw, emotional depth by means of a rich vocabulary of overall body movement and condition. They each have interaction their media with spectacular, fluid and intuitive gestures. Armstrong fast strategy with dripping paint, and transparent levels of brushstrokes insinuate the immediately shifting flexes of muscle in the dynamic poses. The loose brushwork and clear levels of shade are offset by Miles’ definitive intention and deep concentration, the reiteration of his figure emphasizes the intensity of the dancer’s emphasis and push. The restricted focus on the determine inside the confined room of the composition magnifies the stress of vulnerability and honesty. In the titular portray, “It Goes To Demonstrate” the matter will make direct eye call. Armstrong casts Miles with 1 eye powerfully gazing back at the viewer, his dance delivers a shield safeguarding the intimacy of his art.