Lita Albuquerque’s Auric Field paintings have graced museums and galleries throughout the Southland and beyond since 1998. With each meditative piece featuring a black background, surrounding a gold or silver-leafed circle, which itself has a blue aura, the effect evokes the majesty of the larger universe that we inhabit. The artist equates the large black painterly areas of her work with the cosmos, and the circles within them with the earth.

Lita Albuquerque, “Exploded,” installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blake Gallery.

The Auric Fields evolved from the artist’s Land Art series that she first worked on in the late 1970s. This earlier series, created from what Albuquerque refers to as “pigment work” on dry lake beds, also featured circles with pigments in a variety of primary colors.

In the mid-aughts, as Albuquerque continued to create Auric Fields, she simultaneously re-explored the look and essence of her earlier Land Art, often using salt as a background for its reflectivity and pure white backgrounds.

Lita Albuquerque, “Exploded,” installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blake Gallery.

In 2016, she painted her “Embodiment” series, large scale works, with half on black backgrounds and half on white backgrounds. The circles within these paintings were again done in a variety of colors. 

Expanding on this theme, Albuquerque’s current “Exploded” series, with 24 individual square paintings, all created in 2018, features six large Auric Field works in the gallery’s front room. The dramatic black backgrounds surround gold or silver circles, around which are Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Manganese Blue and Ultramarine Green auras.

Lita Albuquerque, “Exploded,” installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blake Gallery.

In the second, third and fourth room of the gallery, she experiments with a variety of background colors, including pale yellows, oranges, reds and lighter blues. Within these pieces, she again uses gold or silver leaf for the circles. In spite of this series’ dramatic title, these paintings produce a softer effect.

Albuquerque has stated her interest in creating a “vibratory” visual effect by juxtaposing pure pigments and gold leaf, noting that the invisibility of cognitive systems like mathematics and linguistics influence us at a sub-liminal level.

Perhaps these newer ethereal paintings offer an expanded understanding of our universe.

Lita Albuquerque, “Exploded,” September 15 – November 4, 2018, at Peter Blake Gallery, 435 Ocean Ave, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. peterblakegallery.com