Alec Egan: Blue Setting

Overview

An intimate look at Alec Egan's first work in watercolors, the show reveals a new area of the artist's practice, which traditionally comprises heavily impastoed oil paintings. This inaugural exhibition reflects the gallery's intention for the new location to provide a platform for extended presentations of a focused or new area of an artist's practice.

On view from May 11 to June 30, the exhibition will present eleven watercolor paintings, alongside seven oil paintings. An intimate look at Egan's first work in watercolors, the show reveals a new area of the artist's practice, which traditionally comprises heavily impastoed oil paintings. This inaugural exhibition reflects the gallery's intention for the new location to provide a platform for extended presentations of a focused or new area of an artist's practice. Blue Setting showcases Egan's adroit embrace of the immediacy, delicacy, and confidence that watercolors demand. While sparser and less saturated than his work in oil, the new watercolor paintings continue the artist's exploration of seemingly banal, domestic interior scenes that possess a deep and aching nostalgia.
Works
  • Blue Setting, 2023 Oil on linen 48 x 72 inches (121.9 x 182.9 cm)
    Blue Setting, 2023
    Oil on linen
    48 x 72 inches (121.9 x 182.9 cm)
  • Boot with Red Lace, 2023 Watercolor on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
    Boot with Red Lace, 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
  • Brush in Water , 2023 Watercolor on paper 16 x 12 inches (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
    Brush in Water , 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    16 x 12 inches (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
  • Bag of Oranges , 2023 Watercolor on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
    Bag of Oranges , 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
  • Book, Shell, and Brush on Table, 2023 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
    Book, Shell, and Brush on Table, 2023
    Oil on canvas
    30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
  • Flower and Sandwich on Table, 2023 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
    Flower and Sandwich on Table, 2023
    Oil on canvas
    30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
  • Tulip in Can, 2023 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)
    Tulip in Can, 2023
    Oil on canvas
    24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)
  • Bag of Oranges, 2023 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)
    Bag of Oranges, 2023
    Oil on canvas
    24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)
  • Crushed Can, 2023 Watercolor on paper 12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm) Framed: 15 x 19 inches (38.1 x 48.3 cm)
    Crushed Can, 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
    Framed: 15 x 19 inches (38.1 x 48.3 cm)
  • Flower in Glass Vase , 2023 Watercolor on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
    Flower in Glass Vase , 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
  • Twin Tulips , 2023 Watercolor on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
    Twin Tulips , 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
  • Hanging Purple Flower , 2023 Watercolor on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
    Hanging Purple Flower , 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
  • Sock, Paper Clip, Seashell, 2023 Watercolor on paper 12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm) Framed: 15 x 19 inches (38.1 x 48.3 cm)
    Sock, Paper Clip, Seashell, 2023
    Watercolor on paper

    12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
    Framed: 15 x 19 inches (38.1 x 48.3 cm)
  • Sandwich, 2023 Watercolor on paper 16 x 12 inches (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
    Sandwich, 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    16 x 12 inches (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
  • Open book with glasses, 2023 Watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches (45.7 x 61 cm)
    Open book with glasses, 2023
    Watercolor on paper
    18 x 24 inches (45.7 x 61 cm)
  • Dog with Pasta Bite , 2023 Watercolor and acrylic on paper 60 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
    Dog with Pasta Bite , 2023
    Watercolor and acrylic on paper
    60 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
Installation Views
Press release

Charles Moffett is pleased to inaugurate its new location at 437 Washington Street with a solo exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Alec Egan. Titled Blue Setting, the exhibition marks the artist's third solo exhibition with the gallery. 

On view from May 11 to June 30, the exhibition will present eleven watercolor paintings, alongside seven oil paintings. An intimate look at Egan's first work in watercolors, the show reveals a new area of the artist's practice, which traditionally comprises heavily impastoed oil paintings. This inaugural exhibition reflects the gallery's intention for the new location to provide a platform for extended presentations of a focused or new area of an artist's practice. Blue Setting showcases Egan's adroit embrace of the immediacy, delicacy, and confidence that watercolors demand. While sparser and less saturated than his work in oil, the new watercolor paintings continue the artist's exploration of seemingly banal, domestic interior scenes that possess a deep and aching nostalgia.

In this new series, the artist locates items as varied as a bundle of oranges, an untied hiking boot, and a turkey-and-cheese sandwich on a tablecloth of white florals on a blue background, set against a softly-hued, blue-and-white-striped wallpaper. The setting could be anywhere, the objects universally familiar. They hint at a recent human presence - a pair of reading glasses placed on an open book to save a page, a paint brush resting in a water glass, a hand-crushed soda can - yet there's no figure in sight. The melancholic tension within that dissonance is where the psychological power of Egan's work lies. The exhibition's moment of reveal comes with the large-scale oil painting

Blue Setting, which, with close looking, unveils itself as the composite scene of several watercolors - uniting the individual objects in a single frame, making the spectral human presence all the more potent. 

Alec Egan (b. 1984, Los Angeles; works in Los Angeles. MFA Otis College 2013, BA Kenyon College 2007.) Egan's bodies of work include thickly impastoed figurative landscapes, and, separately, intricate, vibrantly rendered interior scenes that use object motifs, tropes of nostalgia, and the absence of humans to imbue the depicted objects with something melancholic and profound. A thread of cohesion between paintings begins to emerge as the viewer realizes that each painting within a grouping of works represents a different view of the same theoretical house, conjuring hypothetical narratives around the 'absent homeowner' behind the constructed environment. Since 2017, the artist has presented a sequence of exhibitions that each deal with a new portion of a singular imagined home. He has been the subject of recent solo gallery exhibitions at Anat Egbi in Los Angeles (2022, 2021, 2020), at Charles Moffett in New York (2021, 2019), and at Maki Gallery in Tokyo (2021); as well as solo institutional exhibitions at the Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA (2019) and the California Heritage Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2017).