Astrid Colomar at G Fine art - Washington, D.C - Brief Article

Astrid Colomar, an artist who splits her time between Barcelona and Washington, makes deep blue paintings that are as uninsistently peaceful as they are somehow beckoning. Every one is dramatically different--a difficult achievement with minimalist work--and all are easy to look into. The association these works evoke is visually comfortable: a clear blue sky almost free of weather, subject to subtle shifts in luminous intensity. The blues are modulated by gradients of brightness, and the physical scale varies from 48 by 72 inches to 24 inches square.

Universal Blood (2002-03) is one of the larger rectangular works and feels generously open, a result of a rhythm in dispersal of the lighter blues across the center. Another work of the same title is square; its deeper blues toward the right center help create the impression of an incipient cloudiness in the lighter areas, and the painting seems ambiguous and changeable. The gallery describes Colomar's "aerated blue planes" as presenting "not so much a color as a state of light." A viewer looking for narratives will find in these works such variations as the confident radiance of a midday sun or the wistful expanse of a later afternoon sky in a northern latitude or, as a metaphysical proposition, the welcoming serenity of the empyrean.

These paintings are all supposed to be variations on existential infinity, as many monochromatic abstractions are. What makes Colomar's work unique is how emotional each feels. She's employing the sky as an instantly readable signal of open-endedness. But this work is conceptual, not perceptual, according to the artist. She has said that her intentions are grounded in "knowledge beyond linguistic limitations." Paintings like these bring that possibility forward.

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