STUDIO HART

Joseph Radoccia’s Quiet Life:

Madagascar Paintings

Joseph Radoccia has exhibited at the Albright-Knox and Burchfield-Penney, splits his year between a studio in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and a home in Madagascar. Why Madagascar? In 2001 he traveled there to see the total solar eclipse and wound up staying when a friend offered him a place of his own if he rehabbed the space. It was an irresistible offer and he has returned to Antananarivo, Madagascar every year.

Radoccia employs complementary colors—yellows offset by vibrant violets, greens and blues contrasted by oranges and reds. His paintings are imbued with a contemplative sensual sensibility, recalling the colors of Cezanne and the tropical lushness of Gaugin.

His paintings often have a background pattern based upon lambas, silk fabrics worn and displayed by local Malagasys. The still lifes feature pomegranates, bananas, papayas and coconuts congregating against the lamba cloth backdrops. Many contain proverbs and bits of wisdom, such as “The wise will become wealthy,” “Only the lazy are tired” or “We all look the same but we all walk differently.”

Radoccia’s paintings will be on view until March 22 at Studio Hart, 65 Allen Street (536-8337/studiohart.com).