Patrick Alston: Eighty Days - Trials and Tribulations)

Exhibitions

Eighty Days - Trials and Tribulations
Patrick Alston
September 26 - October 31, 2020

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Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present an exhibition of works on paper by New York-based artist Patrick Alston. Beginning the series on the first day of covid lockdown in NYC on March 22, Alston sequentially tracks his daily mental state - through colorful mark-making in paint and pastel - until the first phase of the city’s reopening in June.

As the stay-at-home order in NY was implemented with no end in sight, it occurred to Alston that the conditions of a lockdown had a high likelihood of exacerbating mental health issues for many, in particular in black and brown communities that were already afflicted by poverty, pre existing conditions and systemic oppression: “In thinking of all the ways people would be affected, I began to also consider my own emotional state and the role that art plays in helping me navigate my emotions. This series served as a way for me to track and document the state of my mental health and what it means to live in this new confined setting, exploring emotions day by day, and trying to take the time to be present.”

It was important to the artist that the scale of the works be small and intimate, reflecting the intimacy of sheltering with his family and echoing the tight spaces that many in NY were confined to inhabit for the foreseeable future. Alston packs a deluge of daily emotions onto these small surfaces, and noticed that while the works began with intensity and a darker palette, they brightened and became more colorful on the days he thought less of the pandemic and turned his focus to the rapid development of his one-year-old son. Colors are expressed within frantic mark making, and in these works we can see reflected our own struggles with emotional and mental health and the rhythms of despair and hope that we have experienced in our own lives the last 6 months. 

In a recent article, curator Larry Ossei-Mensah said of Alston’s work: “I am becoming more bullish on abstraction, specifically Black and brown artists working in the form, because it’s an exciting space that we don’t necessarily give enough attention to. In the case of Patrick, there are some very interesting stories about his personal narrative, growing up in the Bronx, but also just being a Black man in America, a father, a husband. There is a speed and a pace and a vibrance in the mark-making in his practice. I can sit in front of one of his works for hours, trying to register the marks, trying to get the sense of how he felt at the end of that day with that painting or that drawing.”

Alston knows the plight of many people in his community who do not have outlets or council on dealing with mental health, which is particularly imperative during a time of heightened oppression and a global pandemic: “I hope in some way that these works can shed light on the importance of outlets for mental health in communities of color and that working with color as a therapeutic measure can provide a glimpse into that much needed healing.”

Patrick Alston: Eighty Days - Trials and Tribulations will be on display from September 26 through October 31, 2020. 

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