For Immediate Release:
For Immediate Release:
ALLEN HANSEN - The Atmosphere of Nothingness/ or 0
OPENING RECEPTION:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 from 5:30 - 8:30 PM
Exhibition Dates: September 5 - September 30, 2018
Press Release:
Lichtundfire is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Allen Hansen (Allen Anthony Hansen) at the start of the new fall season, marking Allen Hansen's first individual show at Lichtundfire and his 5th appearance at the gallery.
Allen Hansen, originally a skilled Neo-Romantic Landscape painter, has been working for the past two decades as a Minimalist after a progressive transformation of continuously minimalizing his landscapes until the question arose: "Where do you go when you get rid off the horizon line..?" Hansen describes it as finding himself being interested in "what contains and — is contained by — the number 0 rather than in the abstracted jug of water", in other words, in preserving the atmosphere of a landscapes void of its horizon line.
Subsequently, keeping the light source, or more generally, the value of light in lieu of the horizon line, became Hansen's new point of reference for his execution and direction for the viewer.
A challenge to the eye's forever restless search for reference points in the quest to discover WHAT IS THERE, Hansen's depiction of an 'atmosphere of nothingness', (beyond light and color), keeps his audience guessing, and reaching out into the dense void of carefully calculated composition.
A fictitious light source and the occasional color on his dark canvases painted with roofing tar, a medium shaped by his personal childhood memories as son of a roofer, leave the viewer with all but no substantiated image, and rather with a sense of time and space.
What lies beyond this threshold in Hansen's paintings, however, is in the eye of each beholder, and in the visceral experience of his works, shaped by the distinct application of his medium and, a whiff of roofing tar.
Allen Hansen was born in Los Angeles, CA and raised in California. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine, Ca.
In the 1980's Hansen relocated to New York City and has since exhibited in numeroussolo and group exhibitions at venues and institutions such as Hampden Gallery, UMASS Amherst, MA, Proctor Art Gallery at Bard College, Annandale, NY and The Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA and in New York City at ABC No Rio, Exit Art, The Abrazo Interno and LES Galleries at The Clemente, Carolyn J Roy Gallery, Front Room, Side Show, Carter Burder, Edward Thorp, The Whitney Museum of American Art and, most recently, at LICHTUNDFIRE, NYC.
Allen Hansen's Solo Exhibition is on view at Lichtundfire Wed through Sat, noon-6 pm, & Sun, 1-6 pm.
For more information and images of The Atmosphere of Nothingness/ or 0, please contact Priska Juschka at info@lichtundfire.com, or via telephone 917-675-7835, or visit www.lichtundfire.com
Lichtundfire: 175 Rivington Street NY NY 10002
Contact: Priska Juschka, info@lichtundfire.com, Tel: 917-675-7835 General Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 12 pm to 6 pm, Sunday 1 pm to 6 pm
Image: Allen Hansen, Untitled (Detail), 2018, Oil and Tar on Canvas