Deladier AlmeidaSeptember 26 – October 11, 2014

The Poetry of Paint

Whether a scene of people snapping away at cultural icons with phones or cameras, or a mesmerizing landscape, Deladier Almeida brings an energy and vibrancy to his work that few can resist. His paintings pulse with life, brilliant color, and robust patterns. He presents us with a distinctly American vision, confident and innovative.

Perhaps the most compelling of Almeida’s subjects are his landscapes. Images of the American Southwest’s varied terrain are portrayed as he’s seen them from a friend’s small Piper Cub, his favorite perspective. Like the eagle, Almeida swoops across the sky. Inspired by that bird’s-eye view, he later pays it homage in a flurry of bold commentary on canvas. Emphasizing the natural geometry of checkerboarded fields, deeply folded canyons, and sensuously twisting waterways, the artist untethers our imagination so that we, too, can float high above more daily concerns.

Although the artist’s aerial photography serves as a reference, photos are merely the spark that ignites his use of natural elements to express what he feels about the land. Water, shadow, foliage, cultivated fields, and towering mesas are his verbs, his nouns, his adjectives — together they comprise Almeida’s rich painterly language.

Beginning a new painting, the artist works rapidly, brandishing brushes, palette knives, his thumb — whatever is at hand. He pushes beyond replication, takes

aesthetic liberties, and makes intelligent use of abstraction. His fondness for impasto — building up a painting’s surface with thick strokes of paint — is a signature of his style, creating three-dimensional effects that catch the light and lend weight to his radiant color palette.

On a recent morning, Almeida talked about his latest work. “I feel it’s stronger than ever,” he says. “I’m exploring my artistic language more deeply, expanding boundaries, becoming more chromatically assertive. Rather than painting every single detail, I strive to depict what it is to be in the presence of nature’s grandeur, to portray its soul.”

Born in Brazil, Almeida studied architecture, industrial design, and urban planning there before coming to the United States in 1985. He settled in the Sacramento Valley and studied fine art at the University of California at Davis with such legends as Wayne Thiebaud, Roland Peterson, and Roy DeForest. Almeida has exhibited his work at galleries, museums, and art fairs, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the John Natsoulas Center for the Arts in Davis, and Vermont’s Bennington Center for the Arts.

Primordial Tablets, oil on canvas, 18" h x 24" w, $4,000

Hawk Eye, oil on canvas, 30" h x 30" w, $6,500

Random Congruences, oil on linen, 36" h x 72" w, $14,000

Primordial Tablets, oil on canvas, 18" h x 24" w, $4,000

Chromatic Dream, oil on canvas, 24" h x 30" w, $6,000Fluvial Heart, oil on canvas, 24" h x 48" w, $6,500

Chromatic Dream, oil on canvas, 24" h x 30" w, $6,000Fluvial Heart, oil on canvas, 24" h x 48" w, $6,500

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