Carl Baratta’s current solo show at Lloyd Dobler Gallery is a fresh blend of old and obscure references. His work is steeped in painting history, the kind that exists in the back corner of the basement section in the library. In his studio you will find printouts of old alchemy prints, Moghul miniatures, and lesser-known Fauvist paintings. Lately Baratta has been using a lot of egg tempera, watercolor, and gouache on panel. The surfaces are rich with layers upon layers of transparent colors that give the illusion of depth while also maintaining a graphic, or illustrative quality. The layering has a tendency to bury imagery, allowing the image a sort of double meaning and giving Carl room to hide things in the paintings. The color is rich, but difficult at times. At first glance some of the color choices go against every intuitive color combination I can think of, but it’s exactly that aspect of the color that gives it complexity and makes me appreciate it. Compositionally they are crazy; there is a compression of space, where the perspective shifts upwards in impossible ways and where objects in the foreground become a structural element in the entire landscape. I recommend all of the painters getting over to Lloyd Dobler Gallery to see this show; you might learn a thing or two! - Josh Reames, Chicago Contributor

See images from the show after the jump! 

Carl Baratta | You’re Never Going to Make It, & No One’s Gonna Help You, 2010, egg tempera on board, 60”x120”

Carl Baratta | Ensorcelled!, 2012, Silica flat tempera, watercolor, and gouache on board, 18"x24"

Carl Baratta | Entombment/ Entombment, 2011, egg tempera, watercolor, and gouache on board, 24”x36”

Carl Baratta | Wrecked, 2011, egg tempera, watercolor, and gouache on board, 24”x24”

Carl Baratta | In the Guts of the World, 2011, egg tempera, watercolor, and gouache on board, 24”x24”

Carl Baratta | They Wait, 2011, egg tempera, watercolor, and gouache on board, 24”x24”

Carl Baratta | And the Hill Bowed Dumbly, 2011, egg tempera, watercolor, and gouache on board, 11”x16”

---

The exhibition is on view through April 28^th, 2012. For more information visit Lloyd Dobler Gallery.

Carl Baratta is an artist based in Chicago. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his BFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University. He has had solo shows at Lloyd Dobler Gallery and Western Exhibitions in Chicago, and Vox Populi in Philadelphia. Recent group shows include the Italian Pavilion during last year’s Venice Biennale,  a traveling show that went to Chicago, San Francisco, Sante Fe, Philadelphia, and Portland (Maine), Swimming Pool Project Space in Chicago, and the Darke Gallery in Houston.

Josh Reames is a Chicago-based artist and director of Manifest Exhibitions.