Like Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri before him, Eli Ping uses the physical structure of painting to explore universal ideas connected to matter, space, and the body. The ‘pinched then sewn-shut’ form has appeared in his work for a number of years, occurring in both cast bronze and canvas. It exists as a kind of mended void in the surface, conjuring both spatial (a void in the space of the canvas) and bodily (a scar) imagery. Here, two yellow circles are painted over this three-dimensional moment in the canvas, creating a new geometric unity on top of the rupture. Ping has shown his work at galleries in the US and Europe.
Eli Ping
UNTITLED
2022
acrylic on canvas over wood panel
16 x 12 inches