GUZZO PINC | Winnetka | September 26 – October 7, 2023
In the past few years, Pinc has developed a particularly euphoric visual language deeply rooted in the patterns and motifs he’s shaped from decades as a painter and deft artist on paper. The swirls mentioned earlier might suggest waves of stylized wheat fields or the rhythmic tracks one might make with a hand in sand. The movement is what’s important. That sway and swing is the dynamic energy that feels driven by sound, a beat or repetitive pulses. Those patterns, whether interpreted visually or aurally, have been the foundational basis for so much of Pinc’s work. How those hypnotic characters are woven into the main subjects of each piece brings the complexity of his subjects forward. They’re also essential to the complex apparatus that pulls one deeper into the zone.
In Guzzo Pinc’s work, there a sense of immersion is activated via psychological mechanisms. Driven by the energy produced through rhythm, pattern, contrast, and color, one can’t help but be mesmerized and sucked in by these ecstatic fields of wonder. Always a pleasurable trip, the paintings nevertheless allow the viewer to delight in the space they created from an imagination triggered by intricately woven paintings. Sometimes hovering around and through figures, or laid out more like an intricate tapestry, the patterning is always both a part of the subject and something separate. Like some otherworldly camouflage that works as both a field and a form, it’s a device that always keeps the field unsteady yet thoroughly engrossing.
New Order, The Cure, Duran Duran, Cocteau Twins, The The, etc. New Wave music holds a special place in my heart. To me it is the sound of the suburbs. Long Grove, Glen Crest, Downers Grove, Burr Ridge, Oak Lawn —Chicagoans know the vibe. For those not from Chicago you can watch the film The Breakfast Club. When I was making the paintings for my upcoming show, one thing I wanted to do is to try to describe the immense feeling of feeling nothing. — Guzzo Pinc, September 2023
These paintings challenged me. Not because of the feelings I was sorting through, but because I haven’t attempted such a focused theme in my work before. It’s been fun because I have had a chance to nostalgically reflect on a form of music I love and dig into a facet of the environment in which I grew up. I tried my hardest to be serious and nihilistic, like Camus or Robert Smith, but I am too much of a humorist to stick to that plan and at a certain point I looked at my paintings and saw they were a cross between Gerhardt Richter and South Park — which feels just about right. ¶ My paintings may poke holes in the stereotypes we have come to accept about suburban life. I want to satirize many aspects of the “two cars, two kids, and a swimming pool” life plan but I also want to show the beauty, depth, texture, and even tragedy of the little utopias on the outskirts of Chicago (and possibly every American city). — Guzzo Pinc, September 2023
