This October Causey Contemporary is excited to present under currents – paintings and works on paper from 2008-2009, Alexis Portilla’s third solo show at the gallery. Join us for a public reception with the artist on Friday, October 9th from 6 – 9 pm, as part of the Williamsburg Gallery Association’s Second Friday event.

About Alexis Portilla and his work

Upon visiting Portilla’s studio, American painter Will Barnet commented, “Alexis is a poet in space and a painter of original feeling. When I first saw Alexis Portilla’s work on East 20th Street, I was very impressed by his handling of imagery on such a grand scale. I enjoyed so much his treatment of the surface of the canvas, which had such a lovely glow. Each image had its own position, yet it spoke to all others extended within the composition. He conveys a constant sense of expansion.” – June 2007, New York City

“Alexis Portilla works in the intellectual and aesthetic traditions of international modernism—the Western version which ran its course from 1875 – 1975. Yet his works transcends the traditions of Western modernism by accepting tenets of past intellectual and aesthetic movements from outside the provinces of the West. These can be seen in his recognition of the design sophistication of New Guinea and Asmat ornament. While his art is contemporary, it neither rejects the past nor is constrained by the places of its creation.” – Heather Johnson, arts writer.

New York City based painter Alexis Portilla was born in Mexico City in 1965. Alexis Portilla’s one-person exhibitions include Art 4 Love Gallery (2006), Domo Gallery in Summit, NJ (2004), Simon Gallery in Morristown, NJ (2000) and three solo exhibitions at Causey Contemporary since 2005. In addition to a two-person exhibition in 2003 at the Memory Gallery in Central Hong Kong, Alexis Portilla has shown in numerous group exhibitions in New York and Atlanta. His work is in the private and corporate art collections of over 250 individuals and institutions including Cantor Fitzgerald, The New York Public Library, and Penn State University. He holds a MFA from Columbia University as well as a BFA from the Pratt Institute. In 2008, he was reviewed in ARTnews magazine.