About the Work

Gallery 1, 2009
The work reproduced here are all canvases, and panels completed in Los Angeles from 2007 onward, after a move from NYC. They employ a collage element not present in the earlier work, and a shift away from darker grounds in an effort to lighten the atmospheric space in the picture. The subject matter is mindfully operatic, strained through a lexicon of personal associations, serving to contrast a striving toward existential meaning, tempered by nihilistic absurdity. Ultimately the syntax of the images constructed in these works is the content.

Gallery 2, Large Oils
The twelve oil paintings reproduced here are all around six foot square. They were completed between 1996 and 2001, and most are painted on linen with a rabbit skin glue ground. They employ a variety of painting languages and were all composed and completed without preparatory drawings.

Gallery 3, Lumisite Series
The eighteen small geometric paintings are work that were completed during the same period as the large pieces and use the same compositional armatures as the larger works. They are unusual in their technical approach as they are executed on lumisite and painted with shellac using brushes and razor blades. The lumisite composite is adhered to Baltic ply, then run through saws to give the pieces a sharp sculptural presence. On the wall. The quick-drying shellac is directly infused with powdered pigment, which results in highly saturated color without the slight cloudiness that accompanies other mediums such as oil or varnish. The paintings are finished with alcohol to dry out and reveal the surface. They are quite matte and read as though they have been press-formed in casein.

The Artist
Nicholas DiLeo received a BFA from Syracuse University, an MFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and them lived in Italy for two years painting. He has shown his work in storefronts, galleries and museums, and has received numerous fellowships, grants and commissions. He has lived the last thirteen years in New York City and has just recently relocated to Los Angeles with his wife and two children.