Paul Kuhn Gallery
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René Pierre Allain

Rene Pierre Allain’s constructed wall paintings blur the distinction between painting and sculpture. Although painterly hybrids, his works are both aesthetically integrated and conceptually coherent. The artist employs a variety of materials in the making of each work – steel, acrylic, pigmented plaster, linen, burlap, wax, gun glue, and clear sealant. Not all of these materials are used in each work, they vary according to the artist’s intent.

For Allain , the investment of craft is essential to his artistic process. This artisanry imbues the paintings with a certain legitimacy and credibility. In each work there is evidence of the artist’s hand. Unlike the purity of Donald Judd’s units of construction, Allain is moving towards a deliberate disjuncture between support and painterly surface. Often the surfaces exceed the dimensions of his steel frame – both the lateral surface and also in relation to the depth of surface, that either advances and recedes in convex and concave proportions.

Formalist art can often be interpreted as the pursuit of unity. Allain’s work searches for significance through the process of disjuncture. The artist is aware of the split between form and content. His work strives to suspend oppositions without imposing a clearly defined resolution

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