Capri 9

Multiple perspectives from the island near Naples, Italy. Probably one of the best days of my life celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday. We took a small boat excursion around the island, tossing in the bouncy sea, taking in the glorious cliffs, caves (Blue Grotto) and making friends.

— Chase Langford

In Capri 9, Chase Langford translates the dramatic meeting of land and sea around the island of Capri into an expansive abstract landscape. Undulating forms suggest limestone formations, coastal terraces, hidden coves, and the constantly moving waters of the Mediterranean. Luminous fields of whites and pale grays give the painting an almost sun-bleached atmosphere, while passages of turquoise, cerulean, deep blue, olive, and earthy brown emerge like fragments of sea and stone.

The elongated horizontal composition conjures the sensation of circumnavigating the island, as if the coastline were continually unfolding before the viewer. Shapes appear, disappear, and reemerge within rhythmic bands, creating a visual experience that is simultaneously geographic and fluid. The painting reflects Langford’s longstanding interest in cartography while moving beyond the conventions of maps. Here, geography becomes memory and sensation. Lines resemble contours, currents, and geological strata, yet they remain deliberately ambiguous. Capri 9 captures something essential about Capri: the contrast between massive rock and transparent water, permanence and movement. Rather than offering a recognizable view, Langford creates an emotional geography—a recollection of place distilled into color, texture, and rhythm.