Carl D’Alvia: Liths - On the grounds at Duck Creek
July 17 - September4, 2021

The Arts Center at Duck Creek is pleased to present Liths, a group of two large-scale sculptures by Carl D’Alvia on the grounds at Duck Creek. Opening July 17, and on view dawn to dusk through September 4, 2021. This show is presented in collaboration with Hesse Flatow Gallery based in New York City and Amagansett, NY.

In a review of Hesse Flatow’s recent exhibit “Sometimes Sculpture Deserves a Break”, New York Magazine critic Jerry Saltz states ““Sculpture is in eternal struggle and perpetual conversation with gravity. In his anthropomorphic, quasi-figurative, abstractly suggestive large aluminum sculptures coated in strong colors of opaque auto paint, Carl D’Alvia addresses this head-on. The results are humble but ambitious philosophical sculptures - mesmerizing, almost mystical configurations that make you feel precious love for shape and states of being.”

Known for his hyper-textured sculptures in resin, bronze, and marble, Carl D’Alvia explores the limits of traditional sculpture, making work that is at once minimal and maximal, humorous and tragic. For his “Liths” series, D’Alvia continues to explore sculptural dichotomies with monumental works in painted aluminum that appear both hard and soft; serious and funny; masculine and feminine. Drawing from ancient monoliths as well as 1970’s works by Tony Conrad, Elizabeth Murray, Alexander Calder, and John McCracken, D’Alvia looks at the concept of the statue or monument—a trope he simultaneously reveres and pokes fun at—with a contemporary lens. D’Alvia softens the severe form of the monolith, introducing playfulness and humor, bridging old traditions together with the new to point to the work’s heavy, serious, and darker qualities.

“Once I hit on humor in my work, I’ve never let go of it. And it’s something that took me a long time to come to… How do you take this form and animate it, and have it be a character, but still in some way have a connection to this kind of statuary path?”

Each sculpture assumes unique human qualities, taking on its own personality—for example, “Sap”is tired and flopped over, and “Loll”is stretched on the floor perhaps in a yoga pose. Introducing heightened color for the first time in his thirty-year practice, D’Alvia coats each work in a different shade of automotive paint, further adding to the humor and personality found in the works, and referencing the work of sculptors like John Chamberlain and George Sugarman. The series began with his 2017 sculpture “Lith”, which is currently on view at Art OMI in upstate New York.

Carl D’Alvia (b. 1965 in Sleepy Hollow, New York) is a sculptor that lives and works in Connecticut and New York. D’Alvia’s post-pop resin, bronze and marble sculptures range from the abstract and geometric to the figurative and anthropomorphic. The work often explores dichotomies such as minimal/ornate, industrial/handmade, and comic/tragic. D’Alvia won the Rome Prize in 2012. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally including American Academy in Rome, Italy and The Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Arts Center at Duck Creek