AARON MAIER-CARRETERO a hundred peonies
Flowers are wonderful forms. Their petals of bright color resemble strokes of smeared paint. Their stems, leaves, and overall composition feels organic and abstract like paint. Flowers are reminders of Aaron Maier- Carretero’s connection to nature, to painting’s connection to nature, and to the alchemy of painting—turning raw materials into forms and emotions that take on a life of their own.
Maier-Carretero draws inspiration from Cy Twombly's work and points to a critical exhibition – Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000-2007, presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2017 – as an inflection point in his own practice. Twombly’s adeptness in balancing abstract and pictorial impulses left a profound impact on Maier-Carretero, showing him the magic and possibility of painting.
In a hundred peonies the artist generously layers paint onto the canvas, manipulating and transforming it into recognizable flora and human subjects while exploring inner and outer nature. It drips down against a range of bright and dark-hued grounds, making the forms appear as though some are flourishing while others wither. Or, perhaps, an impalpable color fills the mind, triggering memories of a moment in our own lives, and reflecting on human nature.
Aaron Maier-Carretero is a Latinx artist born in 1987. He obtained his BFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Maier-Carretero has exhibited at the Queens Museum, NY; Sculpture Center, NY; The National Arts Club, New York City; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; The University of Maryland Art Gallery; the Washington Project for the Arts; NADA New York, EXPO Chicago, and UNTITLED Miami. His work is held in the collections of the Phillips Collection; The University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD; the Art Bank Collection and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities in Washington, DC; The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; The Bunker: The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Palm Beach, FL, and numerous private collections. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.