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Gallery13 and Aloft MInneapolis Present:Derek Meier
‘Smashed Realities’
Opening: October 9th 2026
5:30-7:30 p.m.
@Aloft Minneapolis
900 Washington Ave.S.
Minneapolis Mn 55415
Please Bring your Smiling Faces Good Humour and be ready to see some amazing art and enjoy night of friendship and schmoozing.
We've got comfort, A full bar, a happy Hour, and snacks !
All Are Welcome. Come meet Derek and check out his work.
What stood out in Derek Meirer’s work is his use of color, line, space, symbols, collage, and along with spatial form as a device to engage the viewers of his work. Bright saturated color fields with the formation of constructed portals within the canvas, and finally ‘derelict’ shapes and forms used as interplay between 2D and 3D space within each work. Take for example Derek's painting ‘Insignificant Other’ the lower left center, is a small section that looks like the perspective of a highway marked by traffic lines while adjacent and to the right, is a white space with a shadowed plus sign and a circle in black. These spaces within each of Derek’s paintings offer us different perspectives and change in feeling moving from one part of the canvas to another. This is what Derek Meier refers to as “smashed realities reformed into a singular home”. Small spatial constructions in the artist's painting occur throughout Meier’s work. Each work provides visual anchors where the eye may want to go back over and over again to sense the variance in individual spaces, signs, and forms to check and recheck their significance within the entirety of a work. There is life moving through the artist's paintings and as color, shape, symbol, or collage elements are solidified each painting changes and evolves. This is intentional to Meier's work as he is conscious of his own process of knowing and understanding the world around him. The sum total of skill sets and knowledge allows Derek to make an artwork that changes before your eyes over and over again.
Abstraction comes in a myriad forms and Derek Meier has created strategies to build layered surfaces in each painting with each layer acting as a container of meaning, knowledge, color texture and ideas: hidden layers build luminance and color depth and meaning while providing a luminant foundation for the surface layers in each painting. Derek Meier encourages the viewer to use their instincts 1) to deconstruct what they see , 2) to use their imagination 3) and ultimately use perception to comfortably reassemble elements of the work in a way that each viewer can consume each work comfortably.
Abstract painting presents each artist with an entirely new set of hurdles to overcome that may be very different from painting a realist or abstract realist work. The artist starts with a blank canvas and may or may not have a a complete vision of where to place the first mark or color field that may work as under painting. An idea of where to begin or just an impression or feeling can be elusive. Even with a concrete vision there are millions of choices, pathways, and color palettes to choose from: it is a daunting task. Pure abstraction is completely severed from the physical world to a degree , relying entirely on form, color, line , and collage to convey meaning rather than replicating visible reality although reality and the emotions and feelings that come with it are primary to the work.
There is a moment in the process of any abstract work where composition, color, and texture evolves to a point where frequencies and harmonics of color and space begin to hum. Meier directs a limitless number of elements in his mind during the process of creating a new work; looking for a particular frequency, the sweet spot, where a composition begins to emerge and coalesce . Derek Meier has formalized and honed his approach to the process of painting abstract, symbolist paintings. He has reached a plateau in his practice, where his language, fluidity, color palettes, texture building, and color depth are an approach to his artistic practice that produces work that comes from an unending stream of conscious thought.
Gallery13
2026
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Aloft Minneapolis, 900 Washington Avenue South,Minneapolis,MN,United States
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