Enamel on canvas
183 x 183 x 19.5 cm
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz / Former collection Rolf Ricke at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main
Steven Parrino's Spin-out vortex radiates a sense of dynamism and energy. An act of transformation has taken place here. Having first made a monochrome painting, Parrino detached it from the stretcher and, working from the rear, draped it anew. The resultant movement, akin to a vortex, creates a sense of a captivating powerful momentum. The title Spin-out vortex emphasises this visual effect of the piece and can also be read as a metaphor of a "spin-out motion" from the traditional idiom of painting. The black square in enamel paint, which may evoke associations with Kazimir Malevich's Black Square on white ground, is punctured by a significant circular void. The performative gesture lends additional dynamism to the geometric area. The appearance of the painting is almost corporeal and the "suprematist" abstraction of the piece is folded in baroque-like manner. In this way, Parrino takes the process-based creation of the work to undermine the perfection of the surface of the image, pushing the two-dimensional bounds of classical painting. Almost twenty centimetres deep, the work becomes three-dimensional, its "vortex-like" appearance additionally creating a sense of inward depth.
Parrino's oeuvre is informed by a knowledgeable attachment to art history that is constantly being questioned, undermined and redefined. Socially subversive counter-movements such as the punk movement of the 1970s, but also artistic positions including the work of land art artist Robert Smithson or Andy Warhol's pop art, are fertile sources of inspiration for the artist. The process-based creation of his artworks lends Steven Parrino's work a performative character. The actionist process not only inscribes itself into, but indeed creates the work: "My idea of painting came out of this performance mentality."
Denise Rigaud
