Gentle Persuasion, A Study of Splatter, 2023
Ro2 Art is excited to present Gentle Persuasion: A Study of Splatter, an exhibition of new work by Dallas-based artist Alexander Revier. The exhibition will open December 2, 2023 and remain on view through January 6, 2024, at Ro2 Art Gallery, located at 2606 Bataan St., Dallas, TX, with an opening reception to be held December 2 from 7-10pm.
Flocks of seagulls populate the beaches of Alexander Revier’s exhibition Gentle Persuasion: A Study of Splatter. Simultaneously vandalizing and decorating their environments, these groups of birds are shown dive-bombing the surreal characters that inhabit Revier’s paintings and portrayed lying sprawled and exhausted on the shore. Industrious and overworked, the birds act as a metaphor to reveal the late-capitalist realities and absurdities of work-life balance.
This latest body of work was inspired by the artist walking through the Grapevine Mills Mall parking lot on his way to work for his Meow Wolf mural. Several of the paintings in the exhibition are near mural scale, depicting large gradients of blue sky, perfect white clouds, and far-reaching horizons. With clear, delicate line work and opaque, saturated colors, Revier stages beachside fights, dolphin acrobatics, and synchronized swimming. At times, his cast of characters are frustrated, bemused, happy, worried, and sincere. Figures fight each other over prostrate seagulls and cower together, holding hands, beneath the birds’ chaotic attacks. In these surreal, cartoonish vignettes, featured throughout Gentle Persuasion: A Study of Splatter, Revier counteracts the ugliness of capitalist excesses with a winsome sense of irony, humor, and optimism.