CHC Gallery is pleased to announce a duo exhibition, Surface Study featuring Chas Harold and Ralph Turturro. Both artists have focused on Abstract Expressionism throughout each of their careers. This show consists of their exploration of textures, shapes and color theory—emphasizing an overt dialogue between the works. This is their first duo show with the gallery after several group exhibitions.

There is a direct communication between the two artists; however individually they strive for a different message. For Harold, this is a continuation of a color and texture voyage. His monolithic shapes are formed with the constant layering of medium, creating a relief-like surface. The artist intends for the medium to explode off the canvas, as a visual statement. The surface is composed of paint, pigment, collage, and various chemical reactions. Finding a deeper statement would deviate from the purpose of visual stimulation, hence the core process is the statement. Turturro has conditioned himself as an artist to create pieces based on the necessity of one’s craft. The process of his work is honest, thus creating ‘real’ lines, forms, color, and composition. The primitive scrawls existing in his work evoke from within—they are about depth and texture. The artist believes the foundation of the creative process is innate and predetermined. The current series is inspired by his theoretical method, which bring the art and artist full circle.

Chas Harold is an American artist born in Warsaw, Kentucky possessing a B.A. from the University of Cincinnati and a J.D. from the University of Kentucky. From youth through academia, Harold possessed a diverse interest in the arts. True to his Native American heritage, his youth exposed him to the abundance of nature in the state, His formal art training reflects an emphasis on classic genres tending to at times recall almost primitive restraint and efficiency of shape, form, composition, and style. He is most well known for his organic monolithic shapes. Most recently, he has created flatter works, which are closer to the surface, in neutral colors—emphasizing the elements of line and shape. 2008 was the first time Harold had exhibited in New York. The artist currently lives and works in Florida, splitting his time with New York.

Ralph Turturro was born in New York. He earned his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and his M.F.A. from Pratt Institute. Since then, he has participated in a residency at Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. Turturro is known for his contemporary tenebroso style. The color, texts and inadvertent images that grow out of his process of painting are tools he uses to discover a world he describes as “eternally, cosmically and universally real.” He sees this process as similar to that of “an archaeologist discovering found objects that send one reeling back and forth through time.” Turturro has exhibited extensively in New York since the 1980’s.