Alan Ammann Works

Medium:
Oil on canvas and panel

Subjects: Abstracted architectural spaces and mechanisms

Style: Contemporary

Inspirations: Joseph Stella, Wassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Richter, John Singer Sargent, Caravaggio, Vermeer
Education: Eastman School of Music, University of New Hampshire, Atelier of Dennis Perrin

For as long as he can remember, the emotion Alan Ammann has sought to capture is that of wonder, whether as a boy in rural Pennsylvania shuffling his feet to create huge drawings in freshly fallen snow, or as an atelier-trained painter whose semi-finalist piece in the prestigious Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery triennial portrait competition was featured on the Smithsonian Channel.

His most recent paintings result from the yoking of two competing ideas in the realm visual art: abstraction, with emphasis on composition, shape and movement for its own sake, and illusionistic light.

“Just as music resides in time and sculpture resides in space, paintings reside in light -- light both as it shines illusionistically as an object within the painting and illuminates the physical surface of the canvas itself.  Abstracted architectural and mechanical details provide a kind of scaffolding for light to be convincing while eluding much of the narrative that might distract from the pure, surface composition.”