Artist Eric Anfinson is compelled by the human form and the sense of intimacy color can create; his latest paintings explore the power of red to serve as both parameter and container for emotional impact. “Red” will be revealed in a special preview on Saturday, April 2, from 6pm-8pm at SALT Gallery at SALT Island Provisions on 830 Fleming Street, with a celebration to include refreshments and live music from acoustic singer-songwriter Lance Taylor.

The exhibit will feature approximately 15 new oil paintings on linen panel, stretched canvas, and archival paper, showcasing his distinct figurative style, with the thread of red holding them together in its continuum: a bus stop in Tulsa, the Mediterranean sea, intimate moments of a 1920s flapper girl, an other worldly dreamscape. While Anfinson’s definitive style is apparent, this new body of work reveals a visibly different approach to his more saturated works and a result of painting on linen surfaces— brush strokes of paint that adhere loosely on linen and allow for light to come through. And the red? It propels the work together the way only red can, with Anfinson carefully mixing and applying with the precision necessary to pull it off without a glaring bravado.

“Red can be stimulating and soothing, powerful, sensual, and yet approachable,” he says. “This collection is held together by a red silk rope, a sensation that travels through the individual paintings.”

Anfinson has created hundreds of paintings in the last twelve years, working to “make paintings that are both universal and personal,” he says. The figures he paints allow him to define an emotional moment in time and space while also exploring the visual sensualities of what is found during the process. His work offers an intimacy and immediacy the viewer cannot ignore.

“Eric Anfinson paints with the passion of a master,” says SALT Gallery owner Jeffrey Cardenas. “The raw power of his portraits is seductive and sometimes unsettling— you cannot look away from the faces of his subjects. His work already appears in collections worldwide and it will be exhibited for generations.”

Cardenas will feature a new artist each month at SALT Gallery; Anfinson’s work will remain on display throughout April, accompanied by an artist talk at SALT on Thursday April 14, from 7-8. For more information, call 305.896.2980 or visit EricAnfinson.com.