Ellipses concentriques et noires by Felice Varini

Facts

Material: Acrylic paint on wall, carpet, wood and metal
Size: Variable dimensions
Description: The two paintings Ellipses concentriques et noires and Quatre couronnes entremêlées by Varini operate in the lineage of op-art. They are illusions that question the nature of the flat painterly surface, architecture and the way we perceive space. Viewed head on the 2016 work Ellipses concentriques et noires consists of five yellow and purple ellipses orbiting each other. When seen from the correct angle they seem to float mid-air, creating something like a quantum tunnel to another dimension.
Location: Armonk

Space creates new realities.

Felice Varini

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Ilusions that question the nature of the flat painterly surface, architecture and the way we perceive space.

One that has inexplicably formed in an otherwise perfectly normal office corridor. Shift your position however; and the illusion breaks. We see that the ellipses are merely marks on disparate bits of the wall and on columns of the corridor.

Shift your position and the illusion breaks.

Likewise in Quatre couronnes entremêlées – again from one particular point of view – it seems four interconnecting orange circles block one's passage though another corridor. Take a step to the left, or a step to the right, however, and the obstacle melts away.