A Lavender Horizon Laden With Hazy Moments of Discovery

Alan Prazniak’s blurry landscapes piece together fits and bursts of chromatic moments from his own memories. A twilight-hued standout at his current Geary Contemporary show captures the sometimes glacial path toward clarity.

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind one of their latest works.

Bio: Alan Prazniak, 38 (@alanpraz). I’m recently unmoored—I’ve worked in the same studio in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, for ten years, but I’m in the process of moving it up to Neversink, NY.

Title of work: Daphne Moon (2024).

Where to see it: “Potions” at Geary Contemporary (34 Main Street, Millerton, NY) until October 6.

Three words to describe it: Careful, not cautious.

What was on your mind at the time: How to get that dirty lavender sky to work, how to make a nocturne with pastels, the mountains, glacial change, pressure, finding edges, balance, Kacey Musgraves probably.

An interesting feature that’s not immediately noticeable: I really don’t know. I feel like it’s all just out there to see. But hopefully it rewards approach, and more things reveal themselves. I like the thought of getting infinitely close to a painting and still discovering moments.

How it reflects your practice as a whole: It’s reflective of my practice in that it’s about arrival, as a sense, as a state of being. Arrival at a place with a mark, instantly, a real place or one you’ve been to in another realm, finding funny little intimacies along the way. I try to find meaning where there might be none, so I think the heart of the work is to keep attuned to when I’ve arrived at something, and let it go.

One song that captures its essence: “Thinking of a Place” by The War on Drugs.