Poughkeepsie is where sky and water intersect bridges and rails. A new setting of dichotomies, it’s the perfect place for Ariel Gonzalez’s modernistic creative process of combining digital photographs with gesso and oil.

Color fields disintegrate into luminous foggy landscapes in his paintings. He interprets light like an impressionist who makes a mark for every atmospheric shift. It’s a dynamic sensibility mixing the palette of Puerto Rican roots with ex-east-villager grays.

The tone is serene. There’s a longing for a silence that only wilderness can provide. Fiery orange skies burn a structure that’s simultaneously a forest and a city. Ruins of an abandoned playground become studies of deconstructing the two-dimensional plane. A lake is a Rothko.