Hudson Valley magazine, review of painting on cardboard show
August 5, 2017, NY, USA
FRG Objects & Design / Art is pleased to present “HALABURDA: Contemporary Paintings on Cardboard”, on view through September 30, 2017.
Philippe Halaburda’s highly unusual body of work is inspired by his 2015 move to New York City, when he made the daring decision to paint on cardboard, a material easily acquired in the streets of Brooklyn. Flattened packages, tubes used for carpet or fabrics, and even cereal boxes provided an exciting deviation from traditional shapes and canvas surfaces and increased the urban narrative of Halaburda’s work.
The works on cardboard seem to channel the metropolitan energy of New York. Applying the language of abstract expressionism has created intense, emotional paintings while retaining a fierce sense of identity and independence. With each painting, Halaburda embarks on an improvisational journey, the outcome being vivid, rhythmic compositions of geometric shapes and staccato brushstrokes, always spontaneous yet precisely executed. Halaburda’s palette reflects the psychological state imposed by his environment.
It comes as no surprise that an artist with global influence would attribute such significance to the relationship between location and psyche. Halaburda has exhibited work in the United States, Canada, Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium), and Australia. Halaburda’s work is also in the collection of many institutions such as the Radar (Bayeux, France), Draguignan Permanent Art Collection, and the Villa Baulieu Art Collection (Aix-en-Provence, France). It is also in private collections in the United States, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, the Netherlands, and China.