Artist Steve DiBenedetto presents a new body of work in his solo exhibition, "Spiral Architect," at Derek Eller Gallery. The show features 17 paintings ranging from large-scale canvases to intimate works, all characterized by a restless movement between abstraction and figuration. DiBenedetto utilizes a process-heavy technique of adding, scraping, and reworking oil paint to create dense, visionary landscapes filled with octopi, cellular forms, and Rube Goldberg-esque machinery.
DiBenedetto’s work is significant for its attempt to map the contemporary psyche during a period of collective traumatic crisis. Unlike historical mystics who acted as conduits for higher powers, DiBenedetto seeks to unlock the viewer's own unconscious through a "cosmic sense of the absurd." By balancing on the porous border between structural order and entropic chaos, his paintings serve as talismans that reflect the anxiety and turbulence of the modern world.