"Accidents that might occur allow unexpected textures, surfaces, and colors to develop spontaneously from some vision frozen in our subconscious. It is the stuff that we abstract expressionists work with continually." - Alan Soffer
Artist Bio:
Alan Soffer is an abstract expressionist painter, working mostly in encaustic and oil, while venturing into unknown territory. He began his career as an abstract sculptor, creating religous objects and shamanistic forms. He considers Joseph Campbell his primary mentor, while having studied with many important teachers. Presently he is exploring the more structured formal approach of patterns and grids, primarily circles and squares, which was inspired by his studies of Mondrian. Whatever the direction, the work is always influenced by Joseph Campbell, the noted mythologist, who Soffer considers his mentor. Soffer is in numerous major collections, including The National Museum of American Jewish History; Musee du Chateau, Montbeliard; American Express; Salmany Museum, Kurdistan; and numerous private collections.
"Soffer is a serious artist with a truly poetic gift for making his paintings coalesce into visions of quite remarkable beauty. He is a colorist and very versatile in this; he uses color exuberantly and paints seemingly with abandon, yet his results are nonetheless strongly rhythmic. Such paintings project an engaging physicality, even though they rely on swift effects to declare their presence". -Victor Donohue/Philadelphia Inquirer