Frank M. Alba

Tripping the Light Fantastic

December 7 - January 18, 2018

Reception: Thursday, December 7, 2017, 6-8 PM

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The paintings of Frank M. Alba hover somewhere between allegory and fantasy. When he represents objects and entities familiar to the viewer, he portrays them in such a way that their unusual connotations are stripped away. In this manner, a child, a corridor, a facial expression comes to feel strangely uncanny and dream-like.

In Rebirth, the way Alba weaves a symbolic, almost moralistic tone into his scenes is plainly visible. The embryo of a child is floating near a photograph on a table. Below the table, floating in spectral transparency, is the face of a watch. All these elements come together in terms of the title of the painting; but even without this title a kind of narrative relates the child, the photograph, and the watch. This sense of time passing, of a story being told, derives from the way the embryo supplies the painting’s primary light source. However surreal, grim, or nightmarish this scene might appear, the ghostly fetus (a future rebirth) is the painting’s true point of origin.

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Frank M. Alba

Tripping the Light Fantastic

December 7 - January 18, 2018

Reception: Thursday, December 7, 2017, 6-8 PM

Perspective of Innocence
Perspective of Innocence

Acrylic on canvas
30" x 40"

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The paintings of Frank M. Alba hover somewhere between allegory and fantasy. When he represents objects and entities familiar to the viewer, he portrays them in such a way that their unusual connotations are stripped away. In this manner, a child, a corridor, a facial expression comes to feel strangely uncanny and dream-like.

In Rebirth, the way Alba weaves a symbolic, almost moralistic tone into his scenes is plainly visible. The embryo of a child is floating near a photograph on a table. Below the table, floating in spectral transparency, is the face of a watch. All these elements come together in terms of the title of the painting; but even without this title a kind of narrative relates the child, the photograph, and the watch. This sense of time passing, of a story being told, derives from the way the embryo supplies the painting’s primary light source. However surreal, grim, or nightmarish this scene might appear, the ghostly fetus (a future rebirth) is the painting’s true point of origin.

Perspective of Innocence
Perspective of Innocence
Masquerade Death
Masquerade Death
Left Behind
Left Behind
A New Life
A New Life
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View Frank M. Alba's Past Exhibitions

Tripping the Light Fantastic | December 7 - January 18, 2018

The Infinity of Thoughts
50" x 50" - Acrylic on Canvas
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