Pieces Come Together in Daniel Rona’s “Out of Abstraction”

Like a secret code, Daniel Rona's work engages in a silent dialogue with those who possess a discerning eye, revealing a hidden language that only the initiated can fully comprehend. His meticulous attention to detail and thought-provoking techniques elevate his artistry to new heights. Rona's work unveils a profound connection akin to the hidden language shared among musicians.A "musician's musician" is used to describe a highly skilled and innovative musician who may not receive as much recognition from the general public as they do from their peers. Other talented instrumentalists or composers can appreciate the subtleties in sound, tempo and key changes that may go unnoticed by the average listener. These musicians use their work as a means of conversing with other musicians, creating a hidden language that only those in the know can understand.So what makes someone an artist's artist? When an artist views another artist's work we get close to it. We inspect it. We break down, layer by layer the paint or material and try to figure out if we can tell how it was applied to the canvas. We stand back. Take in the work from afar. We look around and take in the body of work as a whole, hanging on the white walls of a gallery. We inspect how the work is presented, how it is framed, and how it is hung.

Rona is on his way to becoming an artist's artist, as evident by his recent solo show, "Out of Abstraction," on view at Sarah Gormley Gallery Downtown until June 10. Someone with that extra attention to detail will immediately notice not Rona's new paintings on canvas, but rather the care and detail the artist has put into framing each of his pieces. Each shadowbox frame is constructed by Rona and painted specifically to compliment the paintings they highlight, a detail that might be missed or under-appreciated by someone walking in off the street.

Upon a closer inspection of the work on the canvas, we see that Rona isn't just applying oil pastels (arguably a hard medium to work with already), acrylic paint and spray paint to the canvas. He has prepped and primed his surfaces using spackle and sand, a first for the artist. The resulting texture is similar to painting murals on less-than-ideal surfaces, which has helped Rona become a "professional painter" in his own words.

Moving beyond the impasto-like effect of Rona's new technique, there are plenty of recurring characteristics that connect new paintings back to his past work. While Rona's work is evolving, a sign of any great artist, audiences will still be able to recognize his familiar abstracted shapes and even catch abstracted versions of his well-known character.Where the genius of Rona's creative brain really shines is once you understand his process for creating the actual visuals presented on view: the abstracted and yet familiar shapes, lines and pipes that form into a cohesive subject on his canvas. It's not a freeform, free-flowing practice for this artist. Rather, he obsessively sketches the individual objects, the component parts if you will, that will eventually piece together a finished work on canvas. Rona uses his recent obsession with chess to describe the process."There's this fog of war where everything's on the table, you see all the pieces and you see all the painting materials in front of you but what's gonna come out of that is completely unknowing," explains Rona.

"Every small move along the way either fuels something you’re gonna change later or something that's gonna turn into something that maybe stays in the final painting."

Not every work in "Out of Abstraction" feels so rigidly tied to this process. But a series of five paintings on the far north wall of the gallery, all similarly sized, feel more fixed and compartmentalized than other works in the exhibition. They speak more to the dedicated study of pieces, moves and game theory that relates back to chess.A few pieces deviate from Rona's traditional style, more in the way of a color palette than form. In "Mothercolor" and "Inner Hues" he almost completely abandons his signature warm, energetic and loud reds and yellows and instead ops for a nearly white background with a rainbow of colors lending their voice to the canvas. "Rainbow Sherbert" hanging solo on the far south wall also stands apart from the other work because of the laborious task of painting so many lines, each with a different color.

"It took longer than most of the pieces just because of the intentionality of having to create each stroke of different colors," Rona says. "So I hope people are able to see the intention in that and feel the process of my painting."

Rona doesn't always have a clear intention set out for each work he creates and doesn't expect viewers to necessarily walk away with an epiphany about the human condition or the state of the universe. Instead, he hopes that people can see and feel his love for the process of painting.

"A lot of times maybe my paintings are actually just conversations with other artists," he confesses.Indeed, Rona's love of painting shines through in this body of work – anyone can see that regardless of their individual background or familiarity with art. But other artists, such as myself, will notice the finer details and dialogue Rona is creating through his painting, little notes left on the canvas that gently captures our attention and helps us zoom in on his process."Out of Abstraction" is on view now through June 10 at Sarah Gormley Gallery, 95 N. High St. Downtown. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. Learn more at sarahgormleygallery.com.