Portrait of Patrick Alston. Courtesy of Bode Projects.
Known for his colorful abstractions, Patrick Alston creates distinct works that innovatively employ color and texture. For example, his 2023 painting Untitled (Yellow) is an explosion of energy, featuring a kaleidoscope of mustard yellow, magenta, cobalt blue, and chartreuse, applied in emphatic scribbles, straight lines, and globs. Another recent painting, Untitled (Blue) (2023), brings together strokes of teal, beet red, and titanium white swirling around each other in an intricate dance. The composition is chaotic, but its combination of cool tones brings a sense of harmony.
Abstraction allows Alston to experiment with material without being too prescriptive about the meaning of his work, as he explained in a 2021 interview with Artnet News. “I feel it’s my mission to have important conversations around what a Black artist is and can be,” he said.
