neon primitivism
2022 - Present
Clay, Botanical, Gem Crushed Pigments, Oil, Acrylic, Charcoal and Spraypaint on Canvas
The colorful explosion of modern neon colors alongside her clay pigments and primitive forms in Beletic’s, Neon Primitivism is a natural extension of both Ali’s primitivist ideology and her commitment ‘bringing the party and the fun’. The celebrated series utilizes 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 her signature clays, sourcing untraditional pigments, botanical dyes and oils.
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 alongside her exploration of rock n roll. 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 forms, icons, signifiers, motifs, emblems, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic 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.
