MAY 3 - 19 2024
REFUGE - Acrylic, mixed media on canvas 38”x 38”
For over 40 years, Trevor Albert has explored the use of various forms of mixed media into his paintings. In this most recent work, Albert methodically uses exotic papers, magazine scraps and even bits of dehydrated fruits and vegetables. He guides these disparate jagged fragments into harmonious whimsical compositions that are both energetic and simultaneously tranquil.
It felt much too stressful.
I was anxious all the time.
I stopped watching the news.
I avoided unnecessary darkness.
I smiled at strangers.
I didn't talk politics in my studio.
I painted like my happiness depended on it.
I calmed down.
The work is a balance between tension and tranquility.
- TREVOR ALBERT
Trevor Albert is an abstract painter from Los Angeles, California. Majoring in visual arts and communications at UC San Diego, Albert worked his way through college as a journalist for the San Diego Reader, later moving to LA to pursue a film career. For over 20 years Albert worked as a film producer, making films with director Harold Ramis, including a series of successful comedies, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Club Paradise, Groundhog Day, Stuart Saves his Family, and Bedazzled. Albert also started his own film company where he went on to produce, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The First Twenty Million is The Hardest, Because of Winn-Dixie, and the independent film Waiting For Forever, and the Academy Award® nominated documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, which follows the iconic musician on his unprecedented tour across America after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. From 2015 – 2020 Albert served as Chairman of The Harold Ramis Film School at Second City in Chicago. All the while, for over 40 years, Albert painted, enjoying the contradiction between film making and abstract painting. Albert now paints full time from his studio in in Los Angeles, California. He has shown at the Tracy Park Gallery and ARCANE Space. This is his second show at ARCANE Space. For more information about his artwork go to Abstractlands.com
PAST SHOW at ARCANE Space
February 17th - March 5th 2023Living Dangerously
Finding joy and distraction in the face of an unpredictable world
I have danced between two very different creative expressions for much of my life. The contradiction between working as both a professional filmmaker and an abstract painter has served both sides of my brain. As a filmmaker, I have always felt an imperative to entertain, to grab the audience immediately with compelling characters and stories, beginning, middle, end, and giving everyone a mutually shared experience, By contrast, my abstract painting, in its very nature, is a non-linear process. There are no road maps, plot, or character development, only the open parameters of form, color and texture. For me, it is liberating and an instinctively emotional experience, in the making as well as the viewing.
The last several years have forced us all to prioritize and even reconsider what it means to be alive. As an artist, it has been a challenge not to face the blank canvas without moving toward the darker and more agitated surfaces. But, despite the “ruthless furnace of this world” my nature is to look for the light and the laughter, almost always the best antidote for despair.
- Trevor Albert
“We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”
