Jeff Pullen at Adamar Fine Arts

Jeff Pullen, Rolling All Night Long, 2009, oil-paint, wax, wood, louver shutters, 28" x 48" All images are courtesy of the artist and Adamar Fine Arts (Miami Design District)

By Sophie Videment

Established American artist Jeff Pullen vibrantly captures the modern New York urban experience. Emotionally intense and strangely romantic, his mixed media work redefines realism by playing with our illusions.

Viewing Jeff Pullen’s work is an intense emotional experience. Indeed, Jeff Pullen’s first desire is to immediately evoke an emotion to connect the viewer to the painting. Usually composed without any central character, even sometimes without any figure, his realist work depicts the seemingly never-ending flow of movement in New York public places. Pullen positions his time in the in-between, as if his scenes were captured just before or just after the climax of a scene. This retention of information causes an intense emotional tension in the viewer. Pullen says of his mixed media works: “My imagery addresses aloneness, loneliness and the disenfranchisement that is often urban living. While overwhelming at times, these same feelings can be strangely exciting, alluring, and titillating, becoming even more magnified at night.”

Expecting to Fly, 2010, oil-paint, wax, wood, plexi-glass, louver doors, 72 x 48"

Further on, this instant emotion is confronted with another, playing with our senses and illusions. In fact, Pullen doesn’t paint his imagery on flat canvases, but on constructions. He uses found objects as the foundation of his mostly large pieces: shutters, doors, storm doors, louvers, brick, even Plexiglas and hoods from cars. But these objects are not directly related to the subjects of his work. They simply provide their structure. The viewer is therefore confronted with a three-dimensional feel (and smell with the use of brick, wood, etc.), which sets up a constant tension between illusion and reality.

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Pullen’s work is driven by a long-lasting interest in the contrast between illusion and reality, in visual arts as in literature. “I paint my imagery on construction to further confront the viewer and their normal viewing patterns and stereotypes (all paintings are flat, on canvas, etc.). I don’t think flat. I use the three-dimensional to bring the viewer into the surface. My desire is to combine the narrative of my imagery and the structural, by changing the picture plane. I want to make the imagery come off the surface.”

Born in New York, his love of the city and a chance of viewing an Edward Hopper retrospective in the mid-1960s eventually grew into his unique expression. His work has been described in various press releases as “see-through walls,” “forgotten streets once traveled,” and “Edward Hopper meets Elmore Leonard.”

Jeff Pullen studied painting and drawing at Pratt Institute, where he received his Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts. Despite a very successful teaching career in art education from 1970 to 1998, Pullen says, “Painting is all I really saw myself doing.”

“New York: Illusion and Reality,” a selection of Jeff Pullen’s recent works, is on view at Adamar Fine Arts from October 9 to November 12, 2010. 4141 NE 2nd Ave. Suite 107. Miami Design District, FL 33137. Phone: 305-576-1355 / www.adamargallery.com / adamargal@aol.com

Sophie Videment is an art critic based in Miami. She is an expert and art consultant on contemporary art, and is member of the Paris-based European Chamber of Expert-Advisors in Fine Art.