Brian Calvin
dal 8/9/2004 al 16/10/2004
Segnalato da
8/9/2004
Brian Calvin
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Brian Calvin's paintings are a continuation of the narrative of the figure in painting; weird and quietly disconcerting, the mischievously witty paintings are a meditation on that practice. Blank-faced characters are cast in frozen moments that form no narrative.
Anton Kern Gallery is proud to present the first solo exhibition of artist Brian Calvin in New York. He currently lives and works in California.
Brian Calvin's paintings are a continuation of the narrative of the figure in painting; weird and quietly disconcerting, the mischievously witty paintings are a meditation on that practice. Blank-faced characters are cast in frozen moments that form no narrative.
The perspective recalls an awkward landscape survey with flattened palate and skewed cropping. Yet as paintings, they are amazingly coherent. Calvin builds them up by using simple lines and matte color patches to transform the ordinary into something enchanted. The painted scenes are overlays of reality, detached elements that form a cerebral puzzle. Frames, smoke rings, a landscape painting and tropical vegetation act as mysterious evidence linking his work to art history.
The bi-dimensionality of the work lulls the viewer into a meditative state. Even as the paintings veer toward abstraction they retain instances of magically vanished moments.
'To me, all of my work is a contemplation of painting and it's possibilities, so it feels natural to sometimes make works involving the act of painting. I strive to think through painting, not to paint what I think.' – Brian Calvin.
Brian Calvin's work was featured in Painting Pictures - Painting and Media in the Digital Age at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Wolfsburg, in the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, CA and at Baja to Vancouver at the Seattle Art Museum. He was also part of the traveling exhibition Dear Painter, paint me...,, which originated at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2002 and then traveled to the Kunsthalle Wien and to Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt.
Image: Oh Me, 2004
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
AK 3226
Opening Thursday, September 9th from 6 to 8pm. The show will run through October 16th. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am-6 pm. For further information and images, please contact Fernanda Arruda or Michael Clifton at tel 212.367.9663, fax 212.367.8135
October 28th to December 4th – John Bock
September 9 to October 16th, 2004
Opening Thursday, September 9th from 6 to 8 pm.
Anton Kern Gallery
532 west 20th street
New York NY 10011