Rosemarie Fiore & Ana Rendich: Modern Alchemy

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to present Modern Alchemy, a two-person exhibition of works by Rosemarie Fiore and Ana Rendich. 

Like Les Yeux du Monde founder, the late Lyn Bolen Warren, Rosemarie Fiore studied under groundbreaking art historian Lydia Gasman at UVA and credits Gasman with significantly influencing her life and work. A resident of the Bronx, New York, Fiore has exhibited work nationally and internationally, and her work has been reviewed by The New York Times, New York Magazine, Art in America, and Artforum, among others. 

Inspired by Wolfgang Paalen, Fiore employs the surrealist technique fumage to create her Smoke Paintings, leveraging tools she has built to harness smoke expelled from firework canisters and layering this smoke residue with acrylic paint and at times pigmented ground. This alchemy produces stunning works that are dramatic in color and kinetic in feel, which challenge the concept of control and speak to known and unknown, intent and chance, adversity and resilience. 

Fiore will demonstrate her process in a Smoke Painting Performance, a dance of artist with smoke tools, at 3pm on Saturday May 7th immediately before the opening that is not to be missed.

Les Yeux du Monde artist Ana Rendich brings a new body of work to this exhibition. Born in Argentina, Rendich too has shown nationally and internationally, and most recently has had her work exhibited at The Phillips Collection in Washington DC. Like Fiore, Rendich creates work with a unique mix of elements – powders, silicone, epoxy, paper and oil – to stunning effect. Vibrant in color, Rendich arranges her cast resin pieces in visually compelling compositions that communicate with each other and the viewer. While their shapes and exteriors are seemingly flawless, marks beneath their surfaces speak to the concepts of perfection and imperfection, perception and reality, and, not unlike Fiore’s work, to the notion of control and its limits. 

Per Ana, “The mind, heart and soul are also part of human alchemy… each one creates endless possibilities. Hope is part of this alchemy. It is a contest with the self, towards something that we wish for… transformation, healing, faith, magic…if those exist. At least here, they do.”