For hundreds of years, artists have been studying drapery, both as garments and backgrounds for still life, and more abstractly as a subject in which is revealed the play of light against complex folds, waves, valleys and ridges — in effect, a microcosm of light in nature.
Daniel Adel evidently sees that microcosm, finding continuing fascination with the subject of strongly lit folded or draped cloth, but pulled in his imagination by invisible forces of oblique gravity and force of air into shapes that seem both physically improbable and perfectly naturalistic.
At times, in his recent work, he reveals that his windswept draperies are embracing bits of statuary; elements of putti or cherubs peak from under the flying folds.
Adel’s interest in the subject extends into fascinating variations: black folds against light backgrounds; similar forms like wings, swirling surf and foam; and my personal favorite, intricate wads of crumpled paper, with their contrasting crisp and soft edges, subtle ranges of value and shimmering areas of translucency.
Adel’s recent work will be on display in a one-person show at Arcadia Fine Arts in Soho that opens this Saturday, June 15 and runs until June 28, 2013.
During the exhibition you will be able to see a preview of the show here. After that the link will change to the next exhibition, but you can see a continuing gallery of Adel’s work on the Arcadia site here.
On Adel’s website you will find not only additional example of his work in the motifs mentioned above, but more traditional subjects of landscape in watercolor, as well as portraiture, along with examples of his work as a professional illustrator.
Within those seemingly disparate subjects you will still see Adel’s fascination with drapery, cloth and the play of light against brightly lit surfaces.
For more, see my 2007 post on Daniel Adel.
