Crescent Tree Gallery is pleased to present Sydney Croskery: The Violet Flash. The exhibition opens on July 1, 2023 and will run through August 26, 2023, with an opening reception on Saturday, July 1 from 6 PM to 9 PM. The reception is free and open to the public.
At the moment the sun falls below the horizon, our atmosphere acts as prism and lens, causing an optical effect which appears as a green or blue flash. While these two-second flashes occur at every sunset, their near non-discernibility to the naked eye makes this rarely visible event fall in the realm of fantasy and magic. More rarely, when a blue flash combines with a very red sky it creates a light purple or violet flash.
In The Violet Flash, Croskery presents seven site-specific paintings which relate to this fleeting visual effect. While watching the sunset is a durational event filled with beauty and symbolism, in the end we watch it for that one magical moment when the sun falls below the horizon. These paintings, worked quickly and without fuss, draw their energy at the very last minute, with the success of the paintings relying on Croskery’s slow, pointed details. Formally important, these details pave the way for the artist’s slow process of figuring out the significance of a particular painting, both personally and as it relates to a moment in time. For each work, Croskery writes text to further this discovery as well as aid in titling her works, giving the viewer a more complete view of the artist’s process.
Sydney Croskery was born and lives in Los Angeles, and sadly is rarely able to see the sunset. Croskery has presented solo shows at Craig Krull Gallery, boxoProjects, and Citrus College Art Gallery. She has participated in group shows at Monte Vista Projects, Baik Art, Central Park Gallery, Charlie James Gallery, The Fellows of Contemporary Art, Durden and Ray, Angles Gallery, The Torrance Art Museum, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, and The Riverside Museum. She has presented performance pieces at the Getty Museum, Jack Tilton Gallery, the Deitch Art Parade, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. She was a proud member of the LA Art Girls and is one half of The World Famous Wiener Girls of Chicago. Croskery was a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant for 2018.