John Sonsini
JOHN SONSINI
11 February - 12 March 2016
Selected Works
Press Release
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AMERINGER | McENERY | YOHE is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by John Sonsini. The exhibition will open on 11 February and will remain on view through 12 March 2016. A public reception for the artist will be held on 11 February from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication with essays by Ian Berry, Jeffrey D. Grove, and Allan M. Jalon.
In his recent paintings, John Sonsini reinvigorates his portraits of Latino day laborers through their formal elements and emotional potency. Sonsini also expands his sphere to introduce still life as a subject, enabling the artist to infuse his overall body of work with new signification.
Sonsini’s paintings of immigrant Latino laborers, living in Los Angeles, are depicted with lusciously thick and expressive strokes. His canvases display both richly colored single figures and groups of two, sometimes accompanied with items such as a hat or wallet. The works are illuminated by pale blues and yellows along with pastel pink backgrounds. The interaction between these objects and the figures in Sonsini’s portraits, invites the viewer to contemplate on the identities of his sitters.
Sonsini has transferred the same kind of inquiry to his still life works. Articles such as stacked luggage, a belt, shoes and flowers can be found on empty condensed spaces. Displaced from their context and painted in the artist’s studio, these items poignantly conjure their own narratives.
While there is an intrinsic social and political discussion on his subjects, Sonsini is more concerned with the emotional dynamic between sitter and artist - in terms of recreating presence and absence, closeness and distance. The confluence of these ideas further indicates Sonsini’s complex aesthetic psychology.
JOHN SONSINI was born in 1950 in Rome, NY. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 from California State University, Northridge.
He has had numerous solo exhibitions nationally. Recent solo exhibitions include “John Sonsini,” Patrick Painter Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “John Sonsini: Paintings,” Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA; “John Sonsini: New Paintings,” Inman Gallery, Houston, TX; “Los Vaqueros,” James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM; “Broad Reminders: The Paintings of John Sonsini,” ACME., Los Angeles, CA; "John Sonsini," Cheim & Read, New York, NY; and “Cerca Series: John Sonsini,” Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA.
Recent group exhibitions include “Us is Them,” Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; “Concrete Infinity, Selections from the Permanent Collection,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; “The Triumph of Love: Beth Rudin DeWoody Collects,” Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; “Art of the West,” Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles, CA; “SFMOMA: Contemporary Painting, 1960 to the Present: Selections from The Permanent Collection, SFMOMA,” San Francisco, CA; and “With You I Want to Live,” Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
His work may be found in the public collections of The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; among others.
John Sonsini lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.