Duane Reed Gallery: Friday, 10 April 2015

"Girl in White Shirt" (foreground) 2010, 36" x 13" x 10"  and "Grandmother" (background) 2010, 28" x 10" x 7" stoneware with underglazes

April 10 — May 16, 2015
Akio Takamori

 Duane Reed Gallery is pleased to present Akio Takamori  A seminal figure in the ceramic arts for more than thirty years, Takamori explores themes of cultural dichotomy and identity by engaging the history of  Eastern and Western aesthetics. Precise choice of form and color defines his body of  work, which is highly expressive of human emotion and sensuality. Takamori’s rounded and sensitively underglazed figures translate several narratives at once. From Western goddess icons to grounded figures captured about their reality, Takamori’s figures are transfixing and transformative.

Exhibition opens Friday, April 10th with a reception that evening 5 – 8pm. The exhibition will run through May 16th. Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10-5pm.

Special Event – April 25, 2014
5:00 - 8:00 PM

Please join Duane Reed Gallery as we welcome the Youth Learning Center for a special one night exhibition of the work of these talented aspiring young artists.

Learning should be more than textbooks, lectures, and assigned seating.  Learning environments can be a fun, living lab where best practices and innovation converge to meet the needs of students. Through the use of project-based learning and industry standard technology, Youth Learning Center offers a model for integrating individualized learning and Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics, or STEAM. For more than 13 years, YLC has prepared children for the jobs that do not yet exist and for the challenges that have yet to be discovered. A nurturing academic ecosystem includes our new school, The Biome; Two Degrees, our STEM workforce exploration program for teens; and year round quality enrichment opportunities that identify and develop the unique gifts and talents of youth.  YLC instills in youth the confidence to act on their talents. "Paintings of a Superhero" is an event created to do just that. To better prepare our students for the future, we embrace creativity and art in our learning environments. We want to support our student's creative endeavors by providing the best possible education and an experience that they will remember for a lifetime.

For more information about the Youth Learning Center - please click on the links below:
https://vimeo.com/123205323
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLjMlWYQcMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N3QF7u0now

4729 McPherson Ave
Saint Louis, MO 63108

Des Lee Gallery: thursday, 2 april 2015

Join us on Thursday, April 2 for NOT FIT TO FEED: 2015 Washington University BFA Thesis Exhibition. Works from seniors Isaac Howell, Sarah Hull, Qiyuan Liu, Catalina Ouyang, Jared Stein and Maddie Wells.

Reception from 6-9

Free and open to the public. Refreshments served.

Des Lee Gallery

1627 Washington Ave

Pulitzer Arts: Friday, 1 May 2015

Kirkwood Train Station: Thursday, 2 April 2015

Adler Frame Building: Friday, 1 May 2015

Join us on May 1st for XL: Webster University, Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Art, 40th Annual BFA Senior Exhibition. The exhibition will feature work from the senior graduating class of 2015. 

Reception from 7-11

Free and open to the public. Food and drink will be provided.

Featuring the work of:Samuel Bazdresch, Brittany Breedan, Alma Beganovic, Molly Brennan, Serene Bridges, James Butler, Daniel Frumhoff, Lara Head, Selma Kapic, Conor Murphy, Loren Nemetz, Emma Nowlin, Michelle Ocello, Lucille Osborne, Kateland Paluzzi, Johnny Pellhank, Claire Ryterski, Rebecca Sachtleben, Maddy Vatterott, and Ashley Villarreal

Adler Frame Building

2035 Washington Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63103

Central Print: Friday, 24 April 2015

Bonsack Gallery: Friday, 10 April 2015

Tah-Dah (detail), 40”h x 40”w, collagraph on Japanese paper

The Bonsack Gallery at John Burroughs School will feature “The Three Muses,” a collection of works by St. Louis artist Cheri Hoffman, from April 10 through May 6, 2015. All are invited to an opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Friday, April 10.

Many of Hoffman’s works blur the line between painting and printmaking. Paint takes shape on prepared surfaces through the action of whatever tools are nearby e.g., a brush, the blunt side of a palette knife or a credit card. In her Rorschach series, chance dictates the final image, the sheet unfolded and the original impulse now doubled, is revealed. The forms rendered through this process can be ambiguous and abstract. The shifting figures found in Hoffman’s Rorschach pieces mirror the futility of fixing meaning, leading us to the mystery of our musing minds.

Hoffman explains that her home and studio are an integral part of her creative process. “The light, space and architecture of these places are mirrored and inextricably linked to the art,” she writes. “There is also a distant sensibility, a thread if you will, rooted in the natural world. The images almost always reflect a lifelong study of light, dimension and form.” Using the alchemy of oil and wax along with pencil, paint and monotype, Hoffman explores the use of pattern, texture, surface and light.

John Burroughs School

755 S Price Road

St Louis, MO 63124

314.993.4045  x258

Philip Slein Gallery: Friday, 10 April 2015

David Row, Cardinal Rule, 2014, oil on canvas, 38 x 42 inches

DAVID ROW: DEEP FOCUS and ROBERT ZUNGU: MEASURED PAINTING

Reception: Friday, April 10th, 5-8 pm runs through May 16^th

The Philip Slein Gallery is pleased to present Deep Focus, the first St. Louis exhibition for noted New York painter David Row.

Row paints in heavily worked layers of lush oil paint, gradually forming a dense network of marks and lines. Broad swaths of color highlight and disguise underlying grounds, themselves crisscrossed by the artist’s familiar elliptical bands. In Row’s most recent work, the drama of these geometric compositions plays out across a new format. Irregular polygonal shaped canvasses assert themselves as jewel-like objects, defining the conversation unfolding within their borders. Meanwhile, Row’s curvilinear forms continue to behave according to their own secret logic, carving architectural paths through space.

The Philip Slein Gallery is also pleased to present Measured Painting, an exhibition of abstract paintings by Robert Zungu. Each painting employs an advanced chroming technique affixing silver metal deposits onto an aluminum-faced board. Repeated geometric patterns sourced from 19th century hand cut paper stencils originally used to adorn Japanese kimonos are then applied to the mirrored surface using white iridescent enamel ink. The works invoke figuration by enabling viewers to see their reflection in the painting's mirrored surface. Zungu's repeated geometry, which appears opaque on the surface of the painting, is superimposed onto the beholder as an ethereal reflection.

Hours: Tues.-Sat. 10am-5pm

The Philip Slein Gallery

314.361.2617

4735 McPherson Ave.

Central West End

Grafica Fine Arts: Friday, 27 March 2015

Through Her Eyes
by Women in Focus
Opening Reception Friday, March 27, 6-9 pm

7884 Big Bend Blvd.
St. Louis MO 63119

Clayton Fine Art Gallery: Friday, 20 March 2015

Mark Witzling: The Contemporary American Abstract

Mark Witzling captures the power of positive memories in his contemporary abstract oil and mixed media paintings. Collected internationally, this is an opportunity to meet the artist in person and view a selection of his work. Please join us for this special event

Reception Friday, March 20, 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

Featured Guest Artists
Judith Repke - palette knife oils
Philip Perschbacher -  sculpture and charcoal drawing

Gallery Hours Wednesday through Saturday 11am to 6pm, Sunday noon to 5pm

www.claytonfineartgallery.com

The Millitzer Studio and Gallery: Friday, 27 March 2015

Friday, 27 March 2015

The Millitzer Studio and Gallery in St. Louis is pleased to present Reductions, an exhibition of recent paintings by Samantha Haring, on view by appointment from March 27th through April 18th. There will be an opening reception on March 27th from 7pm to 10pm.

Samantha Haring makes quiet paintings in a noisy world. Her work is an intimate meditation on humble objects and the detritus of studio life. Haring blurs the line between abstraction and representation by carefully observing and depicting random drips, marks, and scribbles. She utilizes the paint residue on her studio walls and floor as subject matter to describe the intangibility of loss. Broader questions about absence and presence arise from the ‘empty’ studio spaces and abandoned objects. The title Reductions refers to not only the simplicity of an empty studio, but also the potential for rediscovering the profound within the mundane. For more information on Haring and her work, please visit her website: www.samharing.com

The Millitzer Studio and Gallery

3103 Pestalozzi St.

St. Louis, Mo 63118

http://millitzer.com/

Hunt Gallery: Friday, 20 March 2015

Tom Carr, Reality or Illusion 

Opening Reception: Friday March 20th from 6 to 8pm

Ceceille R. Hunt Gallery

8342 Big Bend Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63119

REESEgallery: Friday, 27 March 2015

REESEgallery

Friday, March 27th, 2015

MANIFEST : Tracing the Invisible

with artists RALEIGH GARDINER and LISA HILTON

Artists Opening Reception: Friday March 27th from 6-9pm

Artists Talks: Saturday April 18th | Doors at 1 and Talks at 1:30

Exhibition Dates:March 27th through April 29th 2015

Creating figurative work in response to the body and psyche, these two artists surpass the very life they seek to depict.  Constructing both art objects and energetic systems, GARDINER and HILTON turn their subjects inside out, illuminating the psychological and ethereal components of existence as an extension of the physical.

In her paintings and drawings, RALEIGH GARDINER, collages the manifest content of her "mindscapes" into luscious oval snapshots overflowing with psychological and emotional density. In larger abstracts she anthropomorphizes the invisible in her Scenes from a Totemic Bestiary.  Her work is somehow sovereign, vulnerable and always mysterious.

Sculptor, LISA HILTON, creates female figures that conjure, decipher and respond to invisible forcers.  With their gestures and expressions these sculptures trace the invisible and outline for us to what was previously only felt.  With skins of stone and lichen, these ceramic sculptures live in the geo-psychic realm of magical realism.  

Hours: Wednesday & Saturday 1-4pm  This event is free and open to the public.

REESEgallery

3410 Wisconsin Avenue

Saint Louis | MO | 63118

www.thereesegallery.com

314.954.7638

Bruno David Gallery: Friday, 27 March 2015

CHRIS KAHLER On Paper

Max Starkloff: A Retrospective
Project Room

Max Starkloff: A Life
Media Arts Room

March 27 – April 25, 2015

Opening Reception: Friday, March 27, 2015 from 6 to 9 pm
Gallery Talk + Reading Saturday, April 25 at 5:30 pm

Bruno David Gallery is pleased to announce the opening reception of Chris Kahler: On Paper and a retrospective exhibition of Max Starkloff 1960s paintings on Friday, March 27th from 6 to 9 pm at its Grand Center gallery.  “On Paper” offers a unique body of work emerging from a three-year exploration of drawing, systematic drafting, and watercolor techniques. Kahler’s exploration of negative space, light, and intersecting planes has resulted in arresting juxtapositions of biomorphic and ephemeral forms. As with “Disequencing”, Kahler’s 2013 exhibition of paintings at Bruno David Gallery, these drawings explore the “boundaries between physical and psychological time, between phenomena and the variable conceptual filters for understanding them.” In conjunction with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery Publications will publish a catalogue on the artist’s work with an exhibition history and bibliography.

In the Project Room, we are pleased to introduce a retrospective exhibition of paintings by Max Starkloff. In conjunction with the exhibition Max Starkloff: A Retrospective; Bruno David Gallery Publications will publish a catalog on the artist’s work with an exhibition history and bibliography and essays by Robert Duffy and Charles E. Claggett.

In 1959, at the age of 21, Max Starkloff was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. His doctors doubted he would live longer than a few days and, if he survived, his quality of life would be diminished. Max’s mother, divorced and supporting three children, tried for nearly four years to care for Max at home before reluctantly placing him in a nursing home managed by Franciscan Brothers in Eureka, Missouri. Max, aged 25, was sent to a facility for men, whose average age was 80. In the nursing home, Max met Brother Matthew, a 40-year-old Franciscan artist. He offered to teach Max how to paint holding the brush clenched between his teeth. Brother Matthew positioned Max close to the canvas, squeezed tubes of colors onto the palette, and began teaching Max how to draw simple shapes. By the winter of 1964, only four months after meeting Brother Matthew, Max began painting six hours a day. His work was exhibited at Kenrick Seminary and Saint Louis University. Max’s last exhibit was at Maryville College in December 1969 at which he presented 30 paintings.

In 1969, his sense of perception was shifting. Watching television as the Civil Rights Movement unfolded, Max began to wonder whether his rights and others with disabilities were being addressed. He gave up painting and became a leader in the movement for independent living and disability rights. He co-founded the Paraquad organization with his wife Colleen in 1970, and established it as one of the first 10 federally funded Independent Living Centers in the nation. Additionally, in 1983, he co-founded the National Council on Independent Living (with Marca Bristo, Judy Heumann, Lex Frieden and Charlie Carr). Max would go on to establish the Starkloff Disability Institute in 2003.

Max Starkloff’s legacy of dedication to the ongoing fight for Civil Rights has changed the face of our nation, helping America to redefine the meaning of independence for the 21st century. Starkloff lobbied for legislation for curb cuts and disabled parking, as well as for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. He won a President’s Distinguished Service Award in 1991, and was awarded a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Max Starkloff was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1937. He passed away in December 2009. The exhibition Max Starkloff: A Retrospective will be open to the public from March 27 to June 27, 2015

In the Media Arts Room, the gallery presents a short documentary (9:20 min) “Max Starkloff: A Life” by Gary Womack, on the life of Max Starkloff and his legacy as a Civil Rights leader and as an artist.

Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. The gallery is located between N. Grand and N. Spring Avenues and is wheelchair accessible. Accessible street crosswalk is at the corner of N. Spring Avenue and Washington Boulevard.

BRUNO DAVID GALLERY

3721 WASHINGTON BOULEVARD

ST. LOUIS MO 63108 USA

1.314.531.3030

info@brunodavidgallery.com

Wine Merchant: Saturday, 14 March 2015

Photographer Michael Rudolph, ten to four

Framations Art Gallery: Friday, 20 March 2015

 

    Photograph by John Blair

"In Transit 2" and John Blair exhibits opening at Framations Art Gallery March 20

St. Charles, MO - Framations Art Gallery is pleased to invite the public to an Opening Reception for two new exhibits on Friday, March 20, 2015 from 6-8pm. In the Main Gallery there will be a themed juried exhibit titled "In Transit 2: journey, change, and motion". Artists were encouraged to interpret the theme and explore the subject matter with ideas such as the use of vehicles, implied motion, changes in light, journey in time, etc. Awards for this exhibit will be announced at the reception and visitors will be able to vote for People's Choice that night and for the full length of the exhibit, through April 23. 

In Gallery Two, there will be a solo exhibit of photography by John Blair entitled "Object Relations". Here, Blair explores life's meaning through an investigation of the figurative form. He states: "My work is deeply grounded in a post modern perspective that assumes meaning is primarily subjective and created between the interactions of what is observed and experienced. I am interested in the interplay of interaction where creativity evolves from the shared space of the observation and the experience of it." Blair's work will also be on display through April 23. 

Framations

218 North Main Street

St. Charles, MO

Tavern of Fine Arts: Friday, 6 March 2015

Tapestry Ted Stahl

Our Spring show is up at the Tavern and the opening celebration is Friday, March 6. This show is all digital work by Ted and Gina Rubright, Ted Stahl, Walter Whitney, and John Newman.

March-May 2015
Opening: Friday, March 6, 5:00 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Complimentary appetizer buffet 5:00 - 7:00 p.m

Tavern of Fine Arts

313 Belt Avenue

St. Louis, Missouri 63112

Reese Gallery: Satruday 7 March 2015

Reese Gallery presents the current exhibit, YET UNFULFILLED, where two artists touch upon dreams unrealized and the weight of a fast approaching future. 

Kahlil Irving, creates sculpture under pressure, where his richly encrusted masses suggest machined compaction. By layering gold lusters and luscious patterns over slip cast re-creations of debris, he questions our relationship with the “throw away” object in the context of commercialism and urban decay.

In contrast to Irving, photographer Erica Popp, turns her camera outward to rural landscapes. Here, she confronts a melancholy found only in the flat wide-open spaces of the mid-western countryside - perhaps hinting at the vulnerability of the family farm, once a vision of the American Dream. While her landscapes are quiet and bleak, they still offer a sense of promise, like the potential of fields in winter. Both Kahlil Irving and Erica Popp create visually intriguing compositions expressing apprehension at the state of the American Dream “yet unfulfilled” .

The exhibition is on view February 6th, through March 14th, 2015 with a free public closing for the artists on Saturday, March 7th, 2015 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM.

Atrium Gallery: friday, 13 March 2015

"Through a Lens Clearly"
Photography by Jerome Hawkins
March 13 – May 2

"Mille Lacs," 1999      black and white photograph     25 1/8" x 29 1/8" Atrium Gallery invites you to an exhibition of black and white photography by Jerome Hawkins. With a highly refined eye, Hawkins has captured some beautiful, elegant images of slices from our landscape.  His exceptional skill with composition and production brings a body of work worthy of significant professional praise, and appreciation from a wide audience.  Encountering these finished prints often inspires viewers to respond with love, care, and hope to preserve these elements so precious to our future in a healthy and giving environment. Also Shown will be a group installation in the Small Gallery presenting photography by Avery Danziger, Carl Goldhagen, and Kirk Pedersen The exhibition opens with a reception for the artist, Friday, March 13 from 6 – 8 p.m. and will run through May 2.

Thursday - Saturday: 10 - 5, Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment 4814 Washington Ave. (Central West End) St. Louis, MO 63108 314.367.1076www.atriumgallery.net atrium@earthlink.net

The Luminary: Friday, 13 March 2015

Join us on March 13th and 14th as we open Counterpublic, an exhibition that will feature projects in spaces throughout the Cherokee Street neighborhood, including work from Dread Scott, Alberto Aguilar, Damon Davis, Work/Play and more.

In March, we will also be presenting acclaimed critic-in-residence Lori Waxman's 60 wrd/min art critic in partnership with fort gondo as well as welcoming several other new residents to St. Louis. Finally, save the date for the FORM Contemporary Design Show, which returns for the fourth year on April 24th and 25th!  

Dread Scott, Stop, Two-Channel HD Video, 2012

Counterpublic + Lori Waxman

Join us on Friday, March 13th from 6 to 8pm and Saturday, March 14th from 12 to 6pm for the opening of Counterpublic.

Opening over the course of two days, Counterpublic is an expansive exhibition that commissions artists to create a series of projects that engage a different conception of cultural space, with a particular emphasis on the charged dynamics in St. Louis and, more specifically, in our own neighborhood. The exhibition will open simultaneously at The Luminary and at various locations throughout the Cherokee Street neighborhood featuring work from Alberto Aguilar, Damon Davis, EDELO, Lucky Pierre, Dread Scott, Sean Starowitz, and Work/Play.

 

Counterpublic addresses the complex publics that make up a community, presenting artists and artworks that speak unevenly across space, aiming for a form of public art that folds into the vibrancy of daily life and responds to the pressing issues of our city and of our time.

 

Projects include:

Alberto Aguilar at El Torito & The Luminary

Damon Davis at The Luminary

EDELO at multiple locations

Lucky Pierre at Black Bear Bakery

Dread Scott at multiple locations

Sean Starowitz at Gooolll
Work/Play at Sweet Shears
Schedule: Opening Reception: March 13th from 6 to 8pm Guided Tours: March 14th at 1pm and 5pm Performance by Alberto Aguilar: March 14th at 3pm Final Meals Communal Dinner with Lucky Pierre: March 14th at 7pm at Black Bear Bakery

duet: Friday, 6 March 2015

Robert Goetz (St. Louis) 

and Thomas Harris (Los Angeles)

March 6 - May 2, 2015

Opening Reception: March 6, 6pm-8pm, followed by a "Norweigan Death Metal" concert.

Every society in every time has had its masks that suited the mood of the society, from the elegance of a Venetian Masked Ball to the occidental theatrics of the Jihadi in a balaklava to the airbrushed war paint of female makeup. People want to act out a feeling inside themselves-anger, sadness, happiness, lust via the mask. It may be a sad commentary on present-day America that horror masks are the best sellers. If you know the construction of a painting, you have a wood frame and you stretch canvas over it. So that structure is kind of important, and you can't really go beyond that, eventually the image is a mask the structure wears and the face grows to fit it.  

Harris's objects are boxes and Goetz's are prints. Both sets act as masks. If you see the conventional painting frame, it's kind of thin. But in Harris's case, wood stretcher bars become a box to then stretch material over it and produce sound. His work here is loosely based on Halloween III's plot to replace children with Androids which was a low rent thriller from the first frame, including a skull, a lime-green witch and an orange jack-o'-lantern.

Goetz's prints of Apes reveal the debased primate behind the human mask. His apes exhibit the ability to imitate intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human...just not a very admirable or desirable set of humans though.

Hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Noon - 5pm or by appointment

Duet

3526 Washington Avenue

Suite 300

St Louis, MO 63103

www.duetstl.com

The Dark Room: Saturday, 7 March 2015

Crime Scenes by Sarah-Marie Land, The Dark Room’s next photography exhibition is on display from March 7th through April 30th, and will celebrate its opening on Saturday, March 7th, 2015 with a reception held by Sarah Marie, the International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum, and curator Jason Gray from 6-9pm.

“Beginning with a collection of news articles, crimes specific to the city of St. Louis, I commenced the creation of a series of fragmented images and text. After having researched the selected crimes, articles, I traveled to each exact location and investigated the visual environment. I am extremely drawn to the manner in which objects, spaces and environments are organized – the way in which visual elements are connected (i.e. – natural and man-made). I also seek to better understand our psychological associations and experiences with physical spaces, structures.

I explored this project in an investigative manner similar to that of Sophie Calle, Thomas Demand, Weegee, Frances Glessener Lee and Corinne May Botz (The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death), and Anglea Strassheim.  In particular, Calle assumes the role of a detective in her project titled, “The Hotel”, where she documents the objects and belongings of hotel guests in a voyeuristic manner. Assuming the role of detective, I also approached and explored each crime scene in a voyeuristic, detective-like manner. In addition, I was fascinated with her project “The Blind”, as she incorporates images and texts, actual events and reimagined visualizations. I believe the photographs by Corinne May Botz (The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death) are also a great influence concerning the reconstruction of a crime scene. In my work, I deconstruct an environment while constructing an image.

The asymmetrical landscapes are visual and psychological dissections of a crime in a particular environment.  By creating diptychs, I seek to challenge and extend understandings of the actual and imagined.”

- Sarah-Marie Land

“Photography is easily one of the most elusive mediums in art.  This is because responses to the photographic are so varied; one can be enthralled by the subject depicted or the compositional design, just as easily as they can be struck with a sense of familiarity, even solidarity, or conversely, dismay.  An image made by a camera imparts all sorts of wisdom, about a person, place or thing, at the same moment as it conceals the full truth about that object.  

When one approaches Sarah-Marie Land's Crime Scenes for the first time, the possibilities are endless.  What are these places so curiously juxtaposed?  Does it matter that I recognize some of the locations, but not others?  What is the connection between all of these?  As I stood, staring into one of the diptychs, a memory linked to the location that I was viewing came to me.  Then I read the small caption beneath the photographs, and the experience that I was having vaporized in an instant.  The mystery was revealed, and suddenly all of the possibilities that had just existed became one.  This is not a trap, nor is it an accident.

That the artist should cite Sophie Calle and Thomas Demand as influences is not surprising.  For, like those artists, Land's work constructs an interplay between the artist, photograph and viewer that invites a dialogue between photographic truth and obfuscation.”

- Curator, Jason Gray

 Monday: closed. Tuesday-Thursday: 4pm-11pm. Friday-Saturday: 4pm-12am. Sunday: Open on some Sundays during high theater season. Check social media & website for updates.

615 N. Grand Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63013

314-531-3416 

www.thedarkroomstl.com

Componere Gallery: Sunday, 1 March 2015

Christopher Lynch: “No Answer Is Also An Answer”
found object collages

March 1st 2015 - March 28th 2015
Reception:Sunday March 1st 2015 2-4 p.m.

Masks and ritualistic objects have always fascinated me. The forms these objects can take are limitless. In primitive cultures, these objects are painstakingly constructed with a real purpose:function is more important than mere ornamentation – which I find very exciting. In my work, I explore common materials using fairly rudimentary tools to “organize” them into sources of mystery. Combined rusticity with disciplined composition and focus is my primary aim. My extensive use of found objects with acquired “power”- is my attempt to mimic the aboriginal. I’d call myself a modern primitive who creates from the gleanings of an industrial society. I believe my work benefits because I’m self-taught, so external influences are attenuated. Although my father was a classically trained artist, he encouraged me but never exerted influence. My aim is to derive inspiration totally from within myself. Think of what I do as an exercise in making green art, so to speak. Some have described my work asoutsider art. I see it a contemporary folk art laced with a touch of tongue-in-cheek.

www.componere.com