Alison Van Pelt

Van Pelt was born and raised in California and grew up in Los Angeles, where she attended the University of California at Los Angeles.[1] She came of age in the 1970s and her distinctive photorealist painting style is evocative of that era, when photography was assimilated into the art world. Painters—Richard Estes, Denis Peterson, Audrey Flack and Chuck Close among them—would create paintings that appeared to be photographs.[2] Van Pelt begins by referencing a photograph or other existing image from which she draws and paints a realistic portrait entirely by hand. Next comes the work of obscuring the carefully rendered image. From a distance the image appears soft, as though photographed through a mist. But as the viewer approaches the work, vertical lines can be seen, and on closer inspection a sort of horizontal weave emerges. One writer described the effect this creates on Van Pelt’s The Expulsion of Adam and Eve as, "so thick with paint and lines that it actually appears to have been applied to wood, not canvas.[3]

In response to the observation that her work is abstract, Van Pelt has said, "It’s my way of merging the tradition of portraiture with contemporary abstraction. I’m interested in ambiguity." A sublime tension is created in the contradiction between the crisp photorealism with which she first delineates her subject and the purposeful act of obscuring this subject, which ensues.[4] Viewed up close, a grid of ambiguous color meets the eye, but with distance the viewer gains the necessary objectivity to discern the subject. However, even with this revelation, a question remains as one writer so aptly noted: "Are the figures stepping forth into the tangible world or are they receding into the depths of the canvas?" [1]

The impetus for this creative tension has its origins in a visit to Paris in 1988. At the Beaubourg at Centre Georges Pompidou, Van Pelt was captivated by the way Francis Bacon had smeared the paint on the face of one of his subjects, and that same evening found a postcard in which the nighttime streetlights appeared as blurry lines. After she returned home to California, the memory of these two images led Van Pelt to experiment with blurring the paint on a portrait of a woman’s face. Her style had coalesced. Her technique caught the attention of Los Angeles dealer Robert Berman, whose gallery exhibited several solo shows of Van Pelt’s work.[1][4]

In 1992, Van Pelt traveled to Florence, Italy to study painting at the Florence Academy of Art, where the ethereal style of her work prompted comparisons to the Shroud of Turin.[5] During the two years she spent studying abroad, she showed her work in solo exhibitions overseas: the show New Work appeared at Galerie Paul Sties in Krönberg, Germany, New Paintings at Galerie Lauter in Mannheim, Germany, and Les Animaux Nouveaux at Galerie Vedovi in Brussels.[4]

Van Pelt’s portrait of William S. Burroughs welcomed visitors to Ports of Entry, an exhibit of Burroughs’ work held at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1996. The Beat Generation hero’s portrait, which appears on the cover for his book, has been described as a ghost-like image.[6] One journalist described Van Pelt’s portrait of Burroughs as "peering out at us with his trademark craggy deadpan, looking characteristically haunted." [4] A Parisian art collector, who also videotapes séances claimed that her paintings looked exactly like the ghosts he records.[3]

Despite the interest that the visceral nature of Bacon’s paintings initially sparked, in comparison, Van Pelt’s work evokes a more languid approach to her subjects… Gerhard Richter and Mark Rothko are among the artists who have exercised considerable influence on Van Pelt’s technique. More than one reviewer has noted that her portraits recall Richter’s blurred portraits of the infamous RAF members embroiled in the Baader-Meinhof scandal in the 1970s, but without the dark political associations.[4][7] Nancy Burson’s composite portraits also come to mind.[8] The line and grid work of Agnes Martin sparked Van Pelt’s meticulous attention to detail in which Van Pelt places as much focus on each brush stroke as she does on a piece of work in its entirety.[1] Van Pelt has said that Plato’s universal flow resonates for her.[3]

Paul Ruscha’s FULL MOON, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, 2006
The Eclectic Eye; Selections from the Frederick R Weisman Art Foundation, Published by the Frederick R. Weisman Philanthropic Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, copyright 2004. Full page, four color reproduction, page 177, with text page 176. 2005
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 26th Annual Benefit Art Auction 2005, full color illustration page 12. 2005
Komanecky, Michael & Van Pelt, Alison. Alison Van Pelt The Women The DaytonArt Institute, Dayton, Ohio 2004
Yalkut, Jud. A Tribute to Some of the Greatest Female Artists of the 20th Century, A & C Visuals Dayton City Paper Weekly News & Culture, April 1 6, 2004, pg. 13.2004
Rollins, Ron. About Face, Arts and Entertainment, Dayton Daily News, March 14, 2004
Appel, Brian. Fall Contemporary Art Sales in New York, Art Critical.com, December, 2004, David Cohen, editor. 2004
Lassell, Michael. Sand Box, Metropolitan Home, March/April 2003
Reginato, James. W at Home House of Brad, W, October 2001
Sobieszek, Robert, A. Fight. Rusconi Publishing, Los Angeles, California 2000
Stunning Painting, Art Scene, January 2000
Paintings, Arts and Entertainment, January 2000
Ochi Exhibition, Wood River Journal, January 2000
The Universal Language, dART INTERNATIONAL, Winter 1999
Artist Profile, Cosmopolitan, August 1999
Wiener, Nicole. The Gadget Versus the Soul, Exhibition of the Human Form, FORM, June 1999
Collins, Linda. Whats On, The Argonaut, May 1999
Flight and the Figure: the Paintings of Alison Van Pelt, Rusconi Publishing, Los Angeles, 1999
Scheer, Robert. Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1998
Scheer, Robert. Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1998
Campbell, Clayton. Alison Van Pelt, Ouverture, July 1998
Neusch, Walter. Geheimnisvoll, ArtHaus, June 1998
Star Artist, Los Angeles Magazine, May 1998
Art Auction, Catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles 1998
Condo, Anna and Jerryl Oristaglio. Ah Allen, A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg, Grenfell Press, New York 1998
Blue Paintings, ArtCONNOISSEUR, Volume 1, Number 1 1998
Plattner, Anuschka. Ausstellung, Deutsche Word, February 1998
Man Ray in Hollywood, dART INTERNATIONAL, January 1998
Melrod, George. Femme Noir, World Art, No. 12 1997
Zappa, Moon. Earth to Moon, RAYGUN, November 1997
Ports of Entry, Exhibition Catalogue Cover, Los Angeles County Museum of Los Angeles County Museum of Art reproduction and text, pp. 154–158. 1996
Joselit, David. Burroughs Virology, Art in America, November. 1996
Garnier, Philippe. Burroughs, La Liberation, August 26, 1996
Art Auction, Catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. 1996
Scheer, Robert. Los Angeles Times, January 10. 1996.
Melrod, George. Openings, Art & Antiques, September 14, 1995.
Finch, Liz. Whats on Art, The Argonaut, September 14, 1995
Marx, Heike. Das Blaue, Stop, July 1995
Madigan, Nick. Illusion or Reality? Santa Monica Outlook, August 19, 1994.
Reviews, ArtScene, October 1992
Carlson, Lance. Open House, Artweek, October 8, 1992
The Book/Los Angeles, Kahn & Partners, Los Angeles, 1989

• Alison Van Pelt Official Website
• Alison in profile against an “If I Were Ed Ruscha” painting in NY Times “The Insider” article
• Profile on L.A. Art House
• Dayton Institute of the Art: the Women
• OCHI Gallery Press Release: Alison Van Pelt All American
• The Shroud of William Lee: Alison Van Pelt's Portraits of William Burroughs
• Roseart New Art Week: Alison Van Pelt
• VC Art Gallery Exhibition -- Alison Van Pelt "If I Were Ed Ruscha..."
• Ventura College Art Gallery Review - "If I Were Ed Ruscha..." by Alison Van Pelt
• Ochi gallery Artist Bio Alison Van Pelt
• Huffington Post Jewelry Designer Kathy Rose on Reality TV, Roseark and her Husband Rick
• Alison Van Pelt: A Painter's Touch
• Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Alison Van Pelt "Georgia"
• Chac Mool Press Release Alison Van Pelt
• Yogamatic 5-minute interview and yoga pose demo