Press Release

The New Gallery is pleased to present "Acute Blue", a new solo exhibition featuring the works of Lino Bernabe, a New York-based Cuban artist and color theorist. A collection of new works on color will be shown starting February 16th; the show will run through the weekend and conclude February 18th. An opening reception will be held from 6:30 - 10:30 PM February 16th at 127 Tompkins Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. 

Acute Blue will feature a selection of 4x4 paintings on canvas from the artists' series ‘Morphology Studies’. Bernabe’s works are about optics; they explore the physiology of visual perception and the The New Gallery is pleased to present "Acute Blue", a new solo exhibition featuring the works of Lino Bernabe, a New York-based Cuban artist and color theorist. A collection of new works on color will be shown starting February 16th; the show will run through the weekend and conclude February 18th. An opening reception will be held from 6:30 - 10:30 PM February 16th at 127 Tompkins Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Acute Blue will feature a selection of 4x4 paintings on canvas from the artists' series ‘Morphology Studies’. Bernabe’s works are about optics; they explore the physiology of visual perception and the physics of light and wave length. The exhibition takes the concepts disregarded by Josef Albers's color theory and places them in the space of light-play experimentation reminiscent of James Turell’s Guggenheim installation. In "Color Study (Geo)" and "Blue Study", simultaneous contrast reveals the nuances in human vision and the mixing of pigment as well as the influence that one color has on another. The elevation of gallery lighting to a component of the artwork itself is rare and thrilling, allowing for a total submersion in the primordial study of the primaries. Though elements of Bernabe’s work may seem familiar, the finished product is the artist’s own invention. The technique utilized in this exhibition has not been seen before; this is a new chapter in color theory, revolutionizing the way we think of, perceive, and interact with color and light.This will be Lino Bernabe Fernandez's second solo exhibition in New York. Born to a Cuban family in South Miami, the artist's obsession with color began early as a natural extension of his environment. Inspiration came narratively from the vibrancy of Cuban traditions, figuratively from the pains of adolescence and sex and visually from the diversity of color in the tropics. Acceptance to a B.F.A. program in visual arts at Cooper Union and the subsequent immersion in color theory study came as a natural extension of the artist's earlier body of work; narrative focus on ugliness fell away to reveal a keen eye for geometry, form, and color. Characters with human bodies were exchanged for the interactions between colors and an ongoing body of work on bio-morphism. AcuteBlue is a culmination of a decade's worth of study, of childhood obsessions honed through mathematics and the equivalence of color values.The paintings featured in the exhibition are so titled, acute, for the use of sharp angles, seen only under the influence of an external source of blue light. Form does not become secondary in the dazzling display of changing lights; it is emphasized by it. The canvas has been simplified to a 4x4 square, and the artist is particular about a lack of distinction between top or bottom. Thereby, in as many ways as the exhibition is a study of color, it is also a study of form and the interaction between color and form. These two concepts are married in the artist's newest works, featured last in the exhibition. The effect of form altered by changing light is elongated to inhabit three canvases, a spectacle that functions as pure magic for the untrained eye.

Today's world is one of blue light; we are the light generation and our relationship with RGB, by virtue of the proliferation of screens, is more advanced than it has ever been. This exhibition is an ode to this transition, heralding in a new era of art made for the technological age.physics of light and wave length. The exhibition takes the concepts disregarded by Josef Albers's color theory and places them in the space of light-play experimentation reminiscent of James Turell’s Guggenheim installation. In "Color Study (Geo)" and "Blue Study", simultaneous contrast reveals the nuances in human vision and the mixing of pigment as well as the influence that one color has on another. The elevation of gallery lighting to a component of the artwork itself is rare and thrilling, allowing for a total submersion in the primordial study of the primaries. Though elements of Bernabe’s work may seem familiar, the finished product is the artist’s own invention. The technique utilized in this exhibition has not been seen before; this is a new chapter in color theory, revolutionizing the way we think of, perceive, and interact with color and light.

This will be Lino Bernabe Fernandez's second solo exhibition in New York. Born to a Cuban family in South Miami, the artist's obsession with color began early as a natural extension of his environment. Inspiration came narratively from the vibrancy of Cuban traditions, figuratively from the pains of adolescence and sex and visually from the diversity of color in the tropics. Acceptance to a B.F.A. program in visual arts at Cooper Union and the subsequent immersion in color theory study came as a natural extension of the artist's earlier body of work; narrative focus on ugliness fell away to reveal a keen eye for geometry, form, and color. Characters with human bodies were exchanged for the interactions between colors and an ongoing body of work on bio-morphism. AcuteBlue is a culmination of a decade's worth of study, of childhood obsessions honed through mathematics and the equivalence of color values.

The paintings featured in the exhibition are so titled, acute, for the use of sharp angles, seen only under the influence of an external source of blue light. Form does not become secondary in the dazzling display of changing lights; it is emphasized by it. The canvas has been simplified to a 4x4 square, and the artist is particular about a lack of distinction between top or bottom. Thereby, in as many ways as the exhibition is a study of color, it is also a study of form and the interaction between color and form. These two concepts are married in the artist's newest works, featured last in the exhibition. The effect of form altered by changing light is elongated to inhabit three canvases, a spectacle that functions as pure magic for the untrained eye. 

Today's world is one of blue light; we are the light generation and our relationship with RGB, by virtue of the proliferation of screens, is more advanced than it has ever been. This exhibition is an ode to this transition, heralding in a new era of art made for the technological age.