As Guyanese at home and abroad awaited Referendum Day in neighbouring Venezuela in varying states of preparedness, concern, and anxiety, Guyana-born New York City-based artist Carl F Anderson (b. 1964) awaited – no doubt with excitement – the opening of his first solo exhibition under gallery representation since migrating to the United States in the late 2000s.
Eye of the Storm: Circulos Vibrante at the David Richard Gallery, New York, NY opened November 29th and debuts Anderson’s stunning new work comprising ten “circular paintings of optically active compositions.” These circular works are formalist explorations of colour and geometric shapes within deft plays with optical illusion. They, therefore, bear little resemblance to the works by Anderson last seen in Guyana in 2008 during CARIFESTA X. Then the works were prismatically colourful and unmistakably and largely figurative. Now, the works within “Eye of the Storm” are a return to his earlier interest in abstraction and he further grounds his approach in techniques of Op (Optical) Art as he uses acrylic and thread on canvas over wood support. Anderson’s meticulously painted roundels vary in diameter from 21 inches to 43 inches. These new works are from 2022 and 2023 and extend Anderson’s Spaceship Series painted in 1986 and 1990. Two paintings from this early series are in the Guyana National Collection.
