ANDREA MARIE BREILING

Andrea Marie Breiling’s upcoming solo show, titled The Swallow, is her secondinstallment of works inspired by Swallowtail butterflies–colourful and fleeting insectsnotable for their unusually wide wingspan and vivid colouring. This new collection seesthe artist mastering her signature spray paint techniques, which yield works that are atonce atmospheric and kaleidoscopic while firmly grounded by a deeply-layered andrhythmic foundation.

Breiling’s previous show, SWALLOWTAIL, is sure to be viewed by some as an homage toclassic New York City, given her emphasis on primary colours throughout. A few of herpieces in that show even appear to pay tribute to Piet Mondrian, with Breiling’sdeliberate streaks of reds, blues, and yellows taking centre stage. However, in TheSwallow, we see the artist shifting away from a primary palette to a secondary palette thatyields warmer, even earthy, works throughout. Rich purples, oranges, and greensintertwine with a warmth that, according to the artist, echos back to her memoriestraveling through Europe in the spring surrounded by budding trees, blossoming flowers,and yes, Swallowtail butterflies. Her painting (featured above) titled Graphium, is astriking example of her palette’s evolution. In it, whimsical layers of lavender andchartreuse dance and flutter across an abyssal purple field, the contrast creating aniridescent effect, as if the viewer is peering through a microscope at light refracting off ofa tiny section of a butterfly’s wing. This effect is carried through to a number of otherworks and enhanced by the artist’s use of traditional formats–each of these works is, inessence, a ‘snapshot’ of intricate detail and contrast zoomed out to a macroscopic level.

All that said, the most impressive piece in the show is also the largest work Breiling hasmade to date, a landscape measuring 6 meters wide and 2.5 meters high. The physicalityrequired to paint something so large is undoubtedly daunting, but Breiling is clearly upto the task and continues to push herself to new heights. Breiling noted that _The Swallow_is not just the name of the show, but also the name of this massive piece that took weeksto complete given its myriad and complex layers of paint. The artist reminisced aboutlooking up at the work midway through its creation and feeling completely enveloped bythe canvas stretching out wide on both sides and high above her–‘I felt like I was beingswallowed!’

Press release courtesy Almine Rech. Text: Liam McCarthy.