Dark Knight
Mixed Media on Canvas 60” x 36”
New Jersey-born, Florida-based artist Joan Criscione has been painting since the 1960s. Originally focusing on portraits and still lifes in oil, Criscione’s practice has evolved over the decades to include bright, bold abstractions in acrylic paint and mixed media. A self-taught artist, Criscione’s background in fashion and dance is evidenced through her rhythmic, balanced compositions and adept used of color and texture. Her loose and brushy technique also mirrors her love for Latin music, as she allows the melodies to dictate the direction of her works.
In her painting Dark Knight, Criscione bifurcates a long canvas with poles of black and white. Completely non-representational, the work is instead a restrained exercise in subtle patterning. Flecked with deep blue spots, the painting taps into a collective unconscious, the entities of light and dark pushing against one another. Unlike the artist’s other non-objective paintings with vibrant splashes and strokes evocative of flowers or reflective waters, Dark Knight is a thoughtful meditation on good and evil via the material beauty of color, texture, and form.
www.joancriscioneart.com
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Joan_Criscione.aspx