ArtBeat: “Untitled” by R. Ashley Krohmal

Which way is up?

Painter and ceramic artist R. Ashley Krohmal has a one-person exhibit on view at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany. And while waiting for the curtain of a production of “The Lady With All the Answers” last week, I was pursuing the work – large scale abstract oil paintings on one side of the theater’s cafe, and smaller landscape watercolors on the other.

I was immediately struck by one of the oil paintings:

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the paint drips were actually dripping upward, as though they were defying gravity. Then I noticed that the artist’s signature was also upside-down in the upper left-hand corner of the canvas. Then I noticed that it was also initialed by the artist in the lower right hand corner.

So apparently, Krohmal painted it one way, and then had a change of heart and flipped the canvas over.

Searching on the artist’s website, I found a photograph of the painting, and it’s posted as the artist had originally intended – but upside-down from the way it’s hung at Cap Rep:

So which way to you like the painting better?