Crystal Fischetti
I talked to London based artist Crystal Fischetti ahead of her solo show, Hello Again!, at Grove Square Gallery opening February 2021.
After graduating in 2006, Crystal had a solo show in New York in 2007. She says she found the environment conducive and supportive of her abstract art work, having always been interested and influenced by the New York School.
Back in London, she worked in fashion for four years which sadly led to burn out and so upon packing up her business she headed to the US again.
Hello Again! Crystal Fischetti solo exhibition at Grove Square Galleries
Crystal’s spiritual approach to life and the universe had her questioning what this burn out meant and concluded that fashion was not her living in her dharma. Her work in Hello Again! presents her deep search for life, magic and meaning, which in talking to Crystal, is clear she embodies in each moment not only her studio time.
Her trip to the US this time she says had a more ‘Kerouac-ian’ experience using the Greyhound to see more of the country. At the start of her trip she began making collages regularly - a practice that allowed her to document her time in the US as a visual journal.
She arrived in LA which she described as enlightening, and was invited to take part in a show in West Hollywood. Her work sold out and this led to a follow on show which also led to her selling out her available work.
Upon returning to London she completed an MA at Chelsea College of Art and in December 2020 was part of the group show called The Colour of Abstraction at Grove Square Gallery.
Crystal talks about a balance between body, heart and mind in her work and seeking this balance in the every day.
How does this come across in your work?
There is a push and pull in the representation and the materiality of the paint and the canvas itself and the stretcher. The installation paintings are draped from the ceiling or draped over or off the stretcher, and require the taking up of space.
In her installation work she invites the audience to take up space and the visitor to experience the physicality of the work.
I Love You LA Style by Crystal Fischetti
Can you talk about the Divine Feminine and how this comes across in your work?
The feminine can be seen in the way the canvas sometimes comes off the actual frame / stretcher and off the rectangle. This allows a curvilinear form, a feminine drape, and echoes softness of the female bodily form, and the examples of the moon and sun. This comes across in my work alot. I am always asking how I can balance the masculine and feminine in each moment.
I am more accepting of who I am as a woman these days and even through my art therapy and cartomancy I see more women clients who mirror this journey and search as well.
How has your work evolved over the last few years?
My work a few years ago had angular masculine forms. The canvases themselves were angular while the work today has a softness associated with feminine energies and form, such as the drape.
Several of the paintings in this show reflect recent times in a very specific way. Works like Light’n the Darkness and Thank You, Alan are direct responses to deaths within Fischetti’s own personal life, while others such as No Ordinary Reality (inspired by Carlos Castaneda’s writings on the way of the shaman) provide broader observations on a fractured and disconnected 2020 and its importance for humanity.
Power Animal by Crystal Fischetti
Happiness is Transient by Crystal Fischetti
See the exhibition at https://www.grovesquaregalleries.com/
Follow Crystal on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/crystal_fischetti/