Local Magic, Alan Prazniak

September 6 - October 12, 2018

Geary is pleased to present Local Magic, a presentation of work by Alan Prazniak in Gallery 2, concurrent with William Corwin’s solo exhibition.

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Above:

Alan Prazniak
Coastal Area Skip, 2018
oil on canvas
16h x 20w in

Prazniak’s works tend to function at a familiar, small scale for the sake of remaining, in the artist’s words, lovely and local, and to resist larger power structures. With a thick building up of gesso to create a subtle beveled edge of each work before oil is applied to the linen, his paintings begin to take on the role of object.

Prazniak admires the genre of landscape’s ability to provide a vehicle for perspective, metaphor, symbolism, and our humanity. Working with a rotating cast of characters in his painting, he is committed to the fluidity of amorphous and shifting subjects that float in and out of his landscapes. The disembodied flute, trickster orbs, following eyes and moons, all punctuate otherworldly and alien terrains. Clouds, mist, rolling hills and mountains, all suggest an expansive, swirling weather condition that envelopes and comforts rather than exerting an impending disaster. The paintings float somewhere in between mystic and quaint and in this modest presentation of works, Prazniak considers a more humble approach to the world when approaching his subjects.

Alan Prazniak was born in 1985 and was raised on a horse farm in rural Pennsylvania.

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Alan Prazniak

The artist received a BFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and an MFA from Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Prazniak’s work has been shown at: Geary in New York City; Hesse Flatow in New York City; Kristen Lorello in New York City; and Silvermine Galleries in New Canaan, Connecticut; among others. Prazniak has also shown work with Geary at Untitled Art Fair Miami Beach in 2021, NADA Miami in 2019, and Untitled San Francisco in 2019. Prazniak’s work has been covered in Artform, Forbes, Whitehot Magazine, Two Coats of Paint and Flaunt Magazine, among others. Prazniak lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.