Alla prima is the Italian term for the material technique of wet on wet painting, and literally translates to “at the first”, but I prefer to read “all at once” as it denotes a kind of urgent submission to the sensorial subject that parallels the sublimation of my more libidinal imagery into the touch of the landscape. Like a lover lost in the realms of desire, a pendulous breast or glistening ass becomes the wet slip of a brushstroke, the resonant touch of two tones, and other things unnameable. How does a stand of trees relate to the figure? How does the midday sun relate to my state of mind? Temperature and speed become tantamount in the lived moment as I try to consume everything with my eyes. Less time to think for more time to feel the shifting light and twining trees mirrored in the creek. Most of the paintings in this body of work were created in one sitting.

About the artist

Drea Cofield is an artist currently working between Indianapolis, IN and Brooklyn, NY. In 2013, she received her M.F.A from Yale School of Art (New Haven, CT), and in 2008, her B.A from DePauw University (Greencastle, IN). She has exhibited in the U.S. and internationally including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland and Italy. Most recently she exhibited in the Armory Show with 1969 Gallery in New York. Her work has been featured in the Brooklyn Rail, Artnet News, Juxtapoz, Blouin Art Info, and in Suzanne Hudson’s latest issue of Contemporary Painting (World of Art). She is the recipient of an Elizabeth Greenshields Grant and the Yale University Gloucester Painting Prize. Residencies include the Guild of Adventure Painters SWAB Mobile Residency in 2019. She is the Founder and Director of Bomb Pop-Up, a pop-up Art & Music initiative that focuses on providing visibility in exciting contexts to emerging and established artists and musicians; working with other 200 artists from all over the world and collaborating with institutions such as the National Academy of Design. Cofield has been a visiting artist at Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
Image :”Hole” 60 x 50 inches, oil on canvas
This exhibition was made possible by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, The City of Indianapolis, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation.