Eva Chen Curatorial and thoughts on Neon Primitivism

Honored to be included in the smart and festive Eva Chen’s curatorial over at Tappan. Read more below and follow the link to shop the new paintings.

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Eva Chen says

"My family will be celebrating the holidays from our new weekend house for the first time this winter. We designed the space (with the marvelous Hendricks Churchill) to be a respite from NYC. As such, we were immediately drawn to soothing abstract art. Ali Beletic's serene but joyful work is a foundation for the aesthetic in our house—and similarly serves as my inspiration for this curation. "

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VINYL ; LEGENDS OF THESE LANDS LEFT TO LIVE

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NPR ALBUM REVIEW

"..It was there, in one of North America's hottest places, that Beletic communed with the wild, mystical beast of rock 'n' roll, communing with its spirits and, amidst a trail of bleached skeletons, found stories that needed telling...."

Vinyl for Legends is available via Spotify Merch Bar / Discogs / Amazon

NEON PRIMITIVISM

The colorful explosion of modern neon colors and primitive forms in Neon Primitivism is a natural extension of both Ali’s primitivist ideology and her commitment to rock n roll.  This new series celebrates the canvas and painting as a form with the power to transfer primitivism, sensuality and emotion to a space in a modern return to Ab Ex style, mixing the ultra mattes of Mexican folk art with earthy clays, and vibrant charcoals and oils, and pointing to forms that enlight the viewer towards the multiple directions of cave paintings, the new york school, ceremonial body paints, line work, weathered artifacts, Charles Olsen’s 'Archaic Post Modern' and pop art.

Ali’s work across multiple mediums has always been founded conceptually in both her nature and survival skills studies as well as her ‘bringing the party and the fun’.  It is here that Ali’s conceptual work led naturally to the crossover that would lead her to explore paintings based on sensuality and dimension - the feeling, the experience and the space they create.  It was here that she derived the process of working with clays, dried plant materials, botanical dyes, and paints made of finely crushed rare minerals and gems, to explore glowing mattes and chalky earthy textures.  This follows in the tradition of her prior sculptural work (almost an artistic take on experimental archeology) which traces primitive technologies, and works with the experiential and the sensual - i.e. hand building mahogany and glass rain catchments, working with fire as a sculptural element, exploring artifact creation using primitive tools and techniques as a means to explore primitivism, lighting up a boulder strewn desert for invitees to walk through, and even building a surfboard from Tule reeds.

Her directness of emotion communicated through primal, rugged gestures, juxtaposed with an integration of ancient philosophies explores the thin line between symbolic totems, anthropomorphic figuration, gestural abstraction and a modern pop sensibility.  Her confident and rule shattering sensibility pulls on us to be 21st century rebels once again and to seek wildness, experience, humanity, and mythos.

MAKE WAVES

Grateful for all the enthusiasm about my Freerider Flags recently. The Freerider Flags have been featured on SF Girl, Vogue Paris, Goop, Lonny, Chang & Co. Design and featured over at the iconic Surfrider hotel as well as in the Gilian Segal curatorial as well as the Cara Woodhouse Curatorial as well as Tappan’s At Home Curatorial.

If you are interested in purchasing a work, click the link below to explore the available editions.



Ali Beletic’s “Freerider Flags” demonstrate her interest in free rider culture, which she describes as a philosophy and way of life that celebrates new experiences beyond existing boundaries. The linen textiles are inspired by the words of journalist Hunter S. Thompson and the stories of vanguards who lived simply with hedonic spirit. Take “Party Wave” for example—the phrase originates from surf culture and describes when multiple surfers share a wave. Beletic’s flag champions the term and its unlimited, inclusive attitude.

Inspired in part by an ex-San Francisco surfer who paddled around Kauai on a 9.0 surfboard, sleeps in a beach cave, and fishes his own food – and other like surfers and vanguards out there surfing/living for the love of life and true hedonic spirit.

It is completely my intention to directly participate in this philosophy, intently promote a freerider culture and illuminate that which already celebrates life beyond boundaries and to forge new experiences with that which does and does not yet exist.

Flags featured as part of the collection at Casa Shelter Half, The Surfrider Hotel, Lightning, The Rosewood / Miramar Hotel and are currently available as part of the curatorial over at Tappan.







Pray for Surf

Pray for Surf featured at the Surfrider Hotel.

Pray for Surf featured at the Surfrider Hotel.

Super stoked to be one of the featured artists next to the one and only architect and artist Le Corbusier in the collection over at The Surfrider Hotel - a work of art in it's own right.  There is an interview with the owner of the hotel Emma Goodwin-Crowther talking her philosophy and artistic choices over at Rip & Tan.  Honored to be a part.

If you are interested in purchasing a work, click the link below to explore the available editions.

The Circle Motif

I just finished a new series of mineral paintings exploring the symbolism of the circle motif.

The circle is one of the symbols that dates back to the pre-history of human culture.  As a geometric form it occurs in the earliest paintings on cave walls.  It has a widespread and universal interpretive phenomenology; often metaphor for emergence, life, egalitarian cosmologies, the cyclical timescale of nature, infinity and seasons.  The symbolism of sitting in a circle, has extensive radiation among primitive and modern societies alike.  

SECRETLY IMPORTANT NAMES LEGENDS 2016 TOP 10

 
 

Thank you Secretly Important for including Legends of These Lands Left to Live on your top 10 list of 2016.  Completely floored and excited!! Couldn't be more honored!!

"..believe me I talked about it to an unhealthy degree, this is one of those albums that gave me everything I wanted in an album beautifully." - Brian Schneider

Read the full review and check out the other 9 albums here.

The Revue Favorite Gems of 2016

Thanks to the Revue for the awesome writeup and including my album in your favorite gems of 2016!!  Check out the full article HERE.

Ali Beletic is an artist who plays by her own rules. Forget elaborate studios and succumbing to the forces of the industry, Beletic – to use an old cliché – marches to the beat of her own drum. She is essentially a modern-day version of James Dean or a younger Patti Smith, and her debut, Legends of These Lands Left To Live, personified her “rebellious nature”.

Brimming with edgy and moody indie and garage rock, the record was raw, gritty, and at times visceral. It represented Beletic’s life-changing journey from the concrete jungle of New York City to the quiet, hard life of the Sonoran Desert. But the album was more than just a personal diary. It also was one that challenged our conception of the relationship between the natural and material worlds. Legends, as such, introduced us to one of the biggest surprises of the year and to a singer-songwriter to watch for years to come. But unlike Dean, Beletic isn’t a rebel without a cause. Quite the opposite, she is one that influence a whole new generation of rebellious singer-songwriters. ~~ Ben

New York Mag's The Cut

Super stoked feature interview on The Cut / New York Magazine and new collaboration with Coach, talking what it means to be authentically American. Click the link below to read the full article, talking leaving New York, personal rebellion, land art and nomadic regionalism. Read on for insights of what it’s like following in the footsteps of the archetypical American artist-nomad, and how she’s pioneering her own way.

Rebel with a Cause :)

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THANK YOU!!!! WOW!! Couldn't be more honored and stoked!!!

"Ali Beletic is a rebel with a cause, a modern-day version of James Dean who is no longer willing to play by the regular rules of engagement. Instead, she was going to do things her own way.... A rebel who just might become a living legend alongside Patti Smith, P.J. Harvey, and Dan Auerbach."  - THE REVUE

Read the full review here...

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