Through July 31, 2026

Deladier Almeida’s current solo show mines a vein of abstraction derived from representational content. Almeida moved from his native Brazil to the U.S. in the 1980s studing with Wayne Thiebaud and Roland Peterson at UC Davis. Almeida’s compositional strategies reflect the influence of the “Picnic Series” for which Peterson is best known, as well as of Thiebaud’s landscape work and by extension that of his close friend Richard Diebenkorn. It’s an approach to landscape grounded in geometry and rich chromatic contrasts, often adopting a vertiginous perspective, as in “Dream Shade” (2026).

Almeida explores the landscape of the Sacramento river delta. While the subject matter is traditional, his working method is rather less so, as it incorporates journeys aloft in a helicopter or small plane to shoot reference photos from above. His early training in architecture and design comes into play via his meticulous draftsmanship and preparatory studies, as well as his propensity for sketching out his composition on the canvas in charcoal. “Dusk Breeze I and II” (2018), a diptych, displays a robust, saturated sense of color. The panels were originally part of a larger composition that the artist cut into pieces, excising an unwanted section down the middle. Brilliantly hued fields of crops glow in pale yellows, searing oranges, aqua and lime green. The sky is particularly vibrant, with underpainting ranging from coral to violet peeking through intense peacock blue scumbles. A white cloud bank entering the canvas from the right has an unusual, assertive presence, with energetic and painterly brushwork giving it a feeling of solidity.

“Island II” (2026) is by contrast highly muted, dominated by creamy pinks, pale blue and mauve, reflecting the artist’s current focus on exploring a more subtle chromatic range. The foreground island bears a thicket of vegetation that is spiky and menacing, its pointy trees having morphed into crystalline structures. Some thrust at extreme angles while others dissolve into cubistic planes of color. The surrounding road narrows to a point, disappearing mysteriously into a groove below a broad frontal plane.

Almeida often employs a system of pictorial organization with divisions into horizontal sections that move the eye vertically from top to bottom. The top consists of a narrow band of color and loose brushwork along the horizon line, a flat but sloping middle area flipping forward as our eye moves downward through loose shapes of trees and shadows nestled between flat blocks of color. By the lower edge of a given canvas we may find ourselves looking straight down on the tops of nearly spherical trees. Atmospheric perspective, with colors muted and edges blurred in the distance, quickly gives way to an entirely different visual energy, with firm edges, strong color and dimensional forms dotting a shifting ground in a quilt-like patchwork of geometric shapes and planes.

Flat areas of pale cobalt blue, suggestive of the Sacramento River, snake around a peninsula in the foreground of “Bending the Blues” (2026). A body of water in the distance leads to warm glowing hills, the horizon and band of landscape offering a gently curving vista, the mid-ground terrain contrasting with the strong shapes of the river and landscape forms dominating the foreground. These areas where plasticity takes hold have a density and forcefulness that ranges from inviting to forbidding. Having studied with Hans Hofmann in New York, Almeida’s mentor Peterson has passed Hofmann’s “push-pull” theory down to his students. Its effect thrives in Almeida’s geometric configurations and brightly hued blocks of color.

Deladier’s keen eye, steady hand, and beautiful sense of color are continually gratifying. The works with more subdued palettes possess a more design-oriented, less visceral impact. The artist is engaged in an aesthetic battle between control and surrender, balancing the work’s expression of a fixed vision with its tendency to remain open to the unexpected. In this substantial body of impressive work, Deladier has achieved a unique balance and unusual slant on this well-traveled road.