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Chester Arnold's newest
show, "Mad Abundance" is rich, deep and wide. As one collector who
attended the opening mentions, "It seems sparser than previous shows but
no less full."
The canvases are filled with palpable & allegorical narratives.
The surfaces are rich with texture and filled with symbolic objects.
The viewer
looks over brick walls, climbs ladders, looks into mines, walks up wide
seemingly littered steps, and is brought face-to-face with a volcano erupting
with fiery hot lava. We are even struck by lightening -- literally and
figuratively. In each of the paintings, we are confronted, simply and most
directly -- with nature, and with ourselves. Arnold's paintings are complex
worlds woven and constructed in ways that lead us to grand conclusions.
In this show, the theme of the "prospector" resurfaces. It is this
writer's opinion that the prospectors and mines are worth attention as they are
narrative paintings which, according to the artist, "...has been a
peripheral interest ever since the early Eighties, taking different shapes as I
developed different skills to apply to the process. The name Prospector was
used for my little book of poems from the show of 2008, which had in it the
signal work of that name..."
We are reminded of discovery of new excavations. We become the toiling worker
resting from a weary day at the mines. We find solace in the journey and
challenges of everyday travails.