Michael Bevilacqua
Ashley Bickerton
George Condo
Ryan McGinness
Ed Paschke
Lari Pittman
Alexis Rockman
Peter Saul
In a contemporary art landscape often criticized for a dearth of figurative painting, several artists are pushing the notion of representation on canvas to its limits. The exhibition seeks to highlight eight American artists that have mastered reality through their own unique visions.
In a contemporary art landscape often criticized for a dearth of figurative painting, several artists are pushing the notion of representation on canvas to its limits. Taking its cue from the Black Sabbath album, this exhibition seeks to highlight eight American artists that have mastered reality through their own unique visions.
The subject matter varies greatly across the twelve paintings and includes global issues of ecology, popular culture, counter-culture, consumerism, and sexuality that are initially familiar to the viewer. However, the artists in this exhibition utilize different methods of obfuscating, contorting, manipulating, and intensifying this seemingly readily accessible iconography. The paintings converge and divide as the artists flatten and polish or heavily layer psychedelic scenes with twisted images of abstracted symbology or hyperrealist depictions of the people, places, and objects that compose their lives. These works illustrate how eight American males have deciphered and restructured their surrounding worlds. Beginning with 1980s portraiture, this selection of works traces a circuitous path through different artistic manifestations of the visual and conceptual filtering apparatus that is the mind of the artist, the master of reality.
Featuring work by:
Michael Bevilacqua
Ashley Bickerton
George Condo
Ryan McGinness
Ed Paschke
Lari Pittman
Alexis Rockman
Peter Saul
Image: Ashley Bickerton, Lbtitnw 1, 2010, Acrylic & digital print, sate sticks on canvas mounted to wood, with fiberglass
41 x 47 x 9 1/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist & Lehmann Maupin Gallery, NY
Opening Thursday, November 3, 6-8pming 3 no
Gering and Lopez Gallery
730 Fifth Avenue New York
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm.
Admission free