By Fran Schiavo

Artist Harry Ally and his wife Suzanne recently chose San Miguel de Allende as their home. And the community is enriched by this choice.

 

Retired after more than 30 years as a professor of drawing and painting, Ally holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Valdosta State University. He has been represented by the Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and Santa Monica, the Soren Christensen in New Orleans, the Stricoff Fine Arts in NYC, and the Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas. He is currently represented by Mason Fine Art in Atlanta and Magenta gallery in San Miguel

 

Harry describes painting as “the primal instinct to mark. It’s a visual record of mind, body, and spirit … an existential search for meaning. Michelangelo said that his task was to release the figure imprisoned within the stone. Similarly, I try to excavate the figure’s presence from the canvas. Borrowing from Jacob Landau’s theory that distortion is necessary to achieve reality, I employ abstraction as a means to seek truth. Abstraction expands to the universal; verisimilitude limits to the specific.”

 

Ally creates in the studio he shares with Lola Picó, the Picó Ally Estudio on Quebrada, “where art is most alive, where pieces are in constant states of flux, and where creative struggles take place.” This activity is made visible in each of his paintings, which merely suggest, rather than illustrate, their subjects. “A work of art,” Ally says, “should remain actively unfinished.”
Visit Magenta to enjoy Ally’s work, “a gestalt-like riddle, an invitation to mentally participate in the painting’s completion.” At Zacateros 26, Magenta is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11am-4pm

 

Talk with Ally at the Picó Ally Estudio, Quebrada 18-B, also open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11am-4pm.

 

Learn more about Magenta’s artists—Harry Ally, Steve Ellis, Patricia Miller, Lola Picó, Fran Schiavo, Cathy Taylor, and Fernando Pérez Vázquez—at www.magentagallery.com. Magenta is, of course, Health First certified and dedicated to the safety and support of all clients and visitors. Private and virtual showings can be arranged; let us know your interests via MagentaGallerySMA@gmail.com.