[detail]

It was a great studio visit. Along with the pleasure of some fine work, there was the pleasure of conversation with an animated artist (actually two or three) and some other good people (some familiar, some not), even if the ambient lighting turned out to be a problem for decent pictures.

These are the views with which I left Bushwick. They show two of the very large canvases Barry and I saw in situ at Piedilato's shared studio during a visit to this former ground-floor factory space. I believe these two were both completed works, but in my enthusiasm with their impact I neglected to ask. We met the artist for the first time that afternoon. His own site has much better images of more work from this series, and earlier ones. They shouldn't be missed; If you take a look you'll understand why I'm so excited.

I liked Piedilato's painting the moment I first saw one seventeen months ago. It's a little strange, but until going back today to my earlier post I hadn't remembered that work as being particularly large, even though I had actually included its generous dimensions in my text. So I was pretty surprised to see the latest pieces. They were all pretty "awesome", but not just because of their monumental size. Piedilato continues to combine exuberance and discipline in his new work, now being registered on an even larger scale: Everything we saw the afternoon we were there was roughly twelve feet square.

I love the strength and repetition of the various kinds of blocks, boards, and wallpaper 'prints', and then Piedilato always introduces some mad explosion or delightfully messy thing to take it much further than you'd imagine it could go. Not every exhibition space can handle 12-foot canvases, but with work of this quality, I can't believe this guy doesn't have serious gallery representation right now.