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LAST DAYS
Exhibition: January 3 - February 9, 2008
Opening: January 3, 6 - 8 p.m.
"Saturday after" artist talk: January 5, 12:00
Click to enlarge any image:
FALLEN, 2007
Oil on wood panel
47 x 47 inches
$17,000
Detail: FALLEN, 2007
FIVE OBLIVIONS, 2007
Oil on 5 oval wood panel
5 panels, 12 x 16 inches each
$20,000 for suite of 5 panels
Detail: FIVE OBLIVIONS, 2007
Detail: FIVE OBLIVIONS, 2007
Detail: FIVE OBLIVIONS, 2007
Detail: FIVE OBLIVIONS, 2007
Artist Statement for LAST DAYS
Recently, my work has explored more fantastic landscapes, leaving the natural world behind in order to create abstract, other-worldly spaces populated by non-representational forms that refer as much to the materials with which they are created as to any actually existing natural phenomena. These recent paintings have been interested in the geological, the botanical, and the celestial without delineating any specific or recognizable form. Out of this exploration a strongly allegorical element has emerged in my work: the movement of abstract forms within abstract pictorial spaces has suggested creation myths, cycles of life and decay and sub-molecular structures, alchemic narratives or the internal space of psychology or spirituality.
I am also increasingly interested in representations of apocalyptic visions within art and literary history. An apocalyptic vision is often a highly symbolic and poetic report of a fearful, at times, violent vision that reveals truths about the past, the present, and the future. The witness to apocalyptic visions often represents himself as having been transported into a heavenly realm, or may have the vision unveiled to him and even interpreted by an angelic messenger. The apocalyptic visionary gains access to an expanded state of consciousness that allows him to escape from the experience of quotidian, historical time and to perceive the underlying and overarching structure of cosmic time: creation, redemption, judgment, obliteration. Despite their cosmic significance, however, apocalyptic events are depicted as occurring on earth, in real time and in real space; and the elements that constitute apocalyptic upheaval are just as likely to be natural as supernatural. The best-known apocalyptic narratives, such as the New Testament Book of Revelations or the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, represent the final upheaval by distorting, decomposing, and creating grotesque recombinations of the natural world.
The paintings included in Last Days specifically explore our existence within the chaos of all natural processes - they exhibit a continuous push and pull between construction and destruction - building up and tearing down, both within physical and psychological realms. Certain narratives are elaborated across multiple panels such as that of the "New Eden" cycle, in which an abstracted landscape transforms through the processes of destruction and mutation; the image decays further in each stage from bright, delineated forms to dark grey and black shadows of broken down elements. Other works contain symbolic references of apocalyptic visions, prophecies and world disorder drawn from a myriad of religions and art history. An example is the painting, Last Days (Gabriel), which refers to the Old Testament story of Gabriel delivering a message to Daniel about his visions representing the "End of Days."
LAST DAYS (Gabriel), 2007
Oil on canvas on panel
84 x 54 inches
$27,000
DETAIL: LAST DAYS (Gabriel), 2007
ZIGGURAT, 2007
Oil on wood panel
47 x 47 inches
$17,000
Detail: ZIGGURAT, 2007
ORACLE
Watercolor and gouache on paper
30 x 22 inches
$4,000 unf
VOID
Watercolor and gouache on paper
30 x 22 inches
$4,000 unf
VORTEX, 2007
Watercolor and gouache on paper
30 x 22 inches
$4,000 unf
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