The Art of Christopher Priore

By Andrea Lodico
 

Vivid colors splashed on translucent material seem to dance before the eyes. A line of orange netting divides the room. Glimpses of chains seem to defy their purpose as a sense of movement prevails in artist Christopher Priore’s aerial universe of “L’Albero della Vita.”
Fall has brought the arrival of Christopher Priore to the Italian American Museum. Bold, striking and ambitious, the modern works of Priore represent a marked departure for the Museum as an exploration and discovery of the current Italian American presence and influence on the American cultural landscape. A marriage of timeless questions of faith and grace with undeniably contemporary results, Priore’s work amalgamates a spiritual quest with art that physically and metaphorically battles with weight and gravity.
With questions of faith and spirituality formed by his Italian American Catholic upbringing, Priore’s new exhibit asks, “What holds everything together?” in two distinct groups of pieces. In works of rich vibrance, Priore combines paintings on vinyl and Plexiglas with striking, site-specific sculptures. The paintings appear boundless as Priore’s layers of bright, florescent shades reflect off the Museum’s walls, creating movement and a sense of resilience and faith despite the chains that are present in each work. Orange netting stretches from one corner of the ceiling to the floor in a sharp diagonal line, a work in which the viewer can exist, walking through and around it, examining each angle and space. Works such as these allow Priore to examine another one of his motivations, the consistently changing and evolving relationships between people, nature and their surroundings. This piece, constructed within the space of the Museum embodies another example of the boundlessness of Priore’s work, as space and setting shape the work each time it is presented, allowing the piece to combine with energy of the setting and the perspectives of the viewers to create new meaning for the art.
The second room of the Museum houses Priore’s pieces in charcoal and pencil, works that lie in stark contrast to the bright sensations of the first room. Influenced by the conflict and interactions between extremes in lightness and darkness and the infinite and the small, this second grouping of work examines the ambiguity of scale through a sense of movement and flight. Intersecting charcoal orbits and circular shapes cover the paper as Priore’s complex use of color and reflection appears in florescent shades underneath the paper, creating a delicate glow that surrounds the pieces, as if the energy of each work cannot be contained by its physical space.
Each work that comprises Priore’s exhibit is marked by an unbridled dedication to exploring the modern human experience, the nature of our society, our interactions with one another and our place within our society. Through Priore’s abstractions come concrete beauty and grace.
The exhibition of “L’Albero della Vita,” under the patronage of Louis Tallarini, is curated by the museum’s Maria Fosco and will be on display until October 15th. The Italian American Museum, which is in transitional residence at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and is affiliated with the City University of New York, is located at 28 West 44th Street, 17th floor, Manhattan. The Museum is dedicated to exploring the rich cultural heritage of Italy and Italian Americans and its influence on contemporary culture.