MEHR Gallery is pleased to present the New York solo debut exhibition of IAN CARPENTER in a first look at his effervescent gouache paintings, titled Golden Reverie.

Ian Carpenter was born in Thailand in 1974. He grew up overseas experiencing multiple cultures and their visual arts. Recollecting primary art influences from his early years, Carpenter vividly remembers various colorful paintings from the Caribbean, where he lived as a boy.

In 2005, Carpenter returned to painting with a newfound respect and passion. Throughout the years he grew to deeply appreciate modern painters like Paul Klee and Nicolas De Stael, art collectives like the Fauves and The Society of Six, and various outsider artists like Joseph Yoakum and Anna Zemankova. All of these forces play a subconscious influence on what Carpenter does with paint and the waiting surface. His paintings, with their playful use of color, can be viewed as either lyrical abstractions or vague remembrances of dream world landscapes.

"What I am trying to find in my paintings is a sublime perspective, either informed from the subconscious, in distant memories of visited or imagined places, or from the way nature and the human world engage each other and appear in light, shadow, steel, skin, concrete, glass, sky, sea and earth. Whether that comes out in fantastical, figurative, or abstract forms depends on the weather, the weather in one's mental coordinates at any given time and place, a fresh protean reverie caressing our collective existence."

--Ian Carpenter

Ian Carpenter holds a BFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and currently lives and works in New York.

For an exhibition checklist or to request high-res images of works please contact lital@mehrgallery.com or 1.212.255.0009.