01.23.19
Excerpt: Exhibition
These New Pieter Vermeersch Gradients are the Perfect Antidote to Winter
At long last, we can bask in the beautiful gradients of Pieter Vermeersch without hopping on a plane to Paris. New and recent work by the Turin-based painter and sculptor — currently on display at Perrotin New York gallery on the Lower East Side — includes a range of marble canvases and some of the most ethereal gradient works we’ve ever seen (and we know from ethereal gradients). With three dominating murals of burnt orange, lavender, and cobalt blue hues — which all fade into a bold, stark whiteness — the space itself seems to undulate, Vermeersch’s optical illusion of sorts. In the large, medium, and small marble works, stone takes the place of a typical canvas, adorning constructed birch panels with brushstrokes of color or more sharply defined gradient shapes. There are even more sculptural moments, with standing works of jagged stone leaning against the bright walls. In the placement of these works throughout the gallery, Vermeersch’s work is able to transcend the materials from which it’s made and take on new meanings about the worlds we construct, both inside and out.