Cogan, Uribe and Hoshine

Two artist that I've blogged about before, and among my favorites, are Kim Cogan based out of San Francisco and Nicolás Uribe from Bogota, Colombia.  To my surprise I just discovered that they are showing work together this month at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in L.A. along with another talented artist, new to me, Kenichi Hoshine. The show is called "Abstracted Realities". Here's a few pieces by each with very brief comments.

Kenichi Hoshine was born in Tokyo in 1977 but earned his BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY.  Although there's limited imagery of his work online it's clear from what is there that he delights in the push and pull between realism and abstraction. He frequently combines the two in ways that suggests the haunting and surreal quality of dreams without ever seeming remotely like a surrealist. It reminds me a little of the way Gerhard Richter moves back and forth between representation and abstraction, but somehow got stuck doing both at once. One might think Gerhard Richter could pull it off. But it doesn't matter because Kenichi Hoshine clearly can.

"Study of J"  oil on wood  18" x 18"

"Untitled 54"  16" x 16"

"Untitled"  Charcoal, Acrylic and wax on Wood  20" x 20"

Kim Cogan is quite versatile, from occasional figures, to skulls, waves and wharfs, but especially the urban landscape. He's a technically deft magician with paint. His images that haunt me the most are the lonely scenes of an San Francisco at night. I posted his work back in April 2013. Here's 2 of his pieces that will be in the show:

"Open Late"  12" x 12"

"Sunset"  60" x 40"

And here's 2 by Nicolas Uribe. He focuses on the figure, especially personal portraits of friends and family, but the personal becomes universal, his models mere studies for observing the human animal in all it's intimate idiosyncratic honesty. You can see one of my earlier reviews from July 2010.
Here's 2 of his that will be in the show:

"Wife (Breakfast)"

"Father (After Lunch)"

The opening is this Saturday so if you happen to be in LA may I suggest that this is not just something to do but a chance to see three artists who are doing some amazing work and helping to define why painting continues to be a powerful and significant medium of personal and artistic expression.

Katherine Ace

BRIAR ROSE BIRTHDAY  oil on canvas

FISHERMAN'S WIFE  Oil and charcoal on canvas

FITCHER'S FEATHERED BIRD (with eggs)  Oil/alkyd with paper and small objects on canvas

FROG KING  Oil/alkyd with paper and small objects on canvas

TALES FROM THE GROUND UP  Oil/alkyd with paper on canvas

There is a narrative aspect to Katherine Ace's paintings that does not stem solely from the fact that many of them are based on the tales of the brothers Grimm. It's rather that they function in very much the same manner as the stories.  By juxtaposing unexpected and often improbable elements they create associative possibilities that encourage interpretation and meaning. Although some of the paintings have clearly illustrative aspects, picking specific visual imagery from the source material, illustrations usually interpret a text more literally. But underneath the literal imagery of folktales lies a bottomless well of meaning. As the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim pointed out in his book "The Uses of Enchantment", the message of a fairytale may change many times even for a single listener or reader depending on age and experience. Each story is so loaded with images and ideas that one must construct a relationship between it and one's personal experience in order to develop an interpretation. Interpretations will vary as widely as the audience. Ace's paintings work much the same way, attempting to trigger a kind of narrative instinct. A painting cannot tell a story on its own, being only a static image frozen in time. But stories bloom in the minds of human beings like wildflowers in spring. We dream them. We select moments in our past and ignore others in order to create stories about who we are. Stories define us. At their root, and at the root of all language, and possibly human consciousness itself, lies metaphor. Science is mankind's best tool for creating and discovering knowledge about the world around us. But far older, metaphor, in the guise of language, art and stories is how we create and discover knowledge about ourselves. These are the kind of paintings one could live with for a very long time, allowing their meaning and interpretation to slowly evolve and grow.

There are a lot more to look at on her website. Although there is no easy browsing through the images they're worth the extra little effort.
http://www.katherineace.com/

In other news: I'd like to apologize for the huge delay. Unfortunately I will be gone most of August so don't expect new posts then either. After that, we'll see. I want to continue the blog but may change it in some ways. Maybe add some interviews? Maybe more thematic posts featuring multiple artists. I'm not really sure. But thanks to everyone who's enjoyed following along.

Kris Manzanares

"Girl at Rest / Speed"  oil on panel  48" x 32"  2014

"Fight"  oil on panel  14" x 14"  2014

"Eggplant"  oil on panel  14" x 18"  2014

"Leaving Austin"  oil on panel  23" x 14"  2013

"The Mustard Eaters"  oil on birch panel  32" x 49"

This is a post that's long overdue. Turns out I started to write one in 2012 but got sidetracked and apparently forgot that it never went up. I knew Kris in Arizona more than 15 years ago when she was a sculptor. Having children made that work more difficult but she found time and space to paint instead, a difficult transformation that she made look all too easy. It also transformed the very nature of her art, much of which involves metaphorical narratives based on the lives of her children. But her work is as much about atmosphere and technique as well. She combines very controlled drawing and realism with expressionistic brushwork, the backgrounds often dissolving into pure abstraction. There's something about them that really captures the bright heat of summer days in the southwest. But whether she's painting figurative psychological narrative, a simple landscape or a still life, they are all clearly echoes of her personal life, the small moments and seemingly insignificant objects that together constitute a life.
You can see much more of her work at krismanzanares.com
and if you happen to be in the Phoenix area go see her work in person at Paul Scott Gallery in Scottsdale.

Julian Bell

"Exercises at Imber"  2004

"Delhi Metro"  2007

"The Skylit Room"

"State Offices, Zadar"

"The Arrest at Nevada Bob's"  1999

Julian Bell is a British painter who enthusiastically embraces representation and narrative and finds plenty of fresh energy in that age old effort. He says he's "interested in the funny things people do on the earth," and that seems like a pretty good summation of his style and subject matter, both of which are widely varied, from landscapes to interiors and figures, depicted in rough gestural drawings or tight realism, rigid formal compositions or looping fish-eyed panoramas. The unifying element through all of it is a fascination with the comically vast range of human behavior and our often bizarre transformation of the landscapes around us. The human world seen through Julian Bell's eyes is neither a horror show, nor is it one of awe and wonder. It may occasionally strike you as one, or neither or both, but ultimately it is simply a fascinating place of unlikely peculiarities. 
Enjoy.

You can see more work at his website: http://www.jbell.co.uk
or at: http://www.stannesgalleries.com/bell.html

Julian Bell is also a writer and author of the recent history of art "Mirror of the World".

I'd like to thank Chester Arnold to pointing me to his work.

Eric Joyner

"Lunch Break"

"Catfish"

"All Wrapped Up Again"

"Home Away From Home"

"Jungle Trek"

It's odd. This morning I suddenly had a craving for a donut. I don't eat donuts all that often often. But I like them. Only I'm at work and there's no place nearby to get one. So instead, I thought it was high time to revisit the work of Eric Joyner. He has turned donuts and toy robots into his personal iconography. Armed with a real talent for traditional realism, an exuberant sense of humor and a wry taste for nostalgia he has created what can modestly be described as a unique body of work. I can imagine someone saying that this isn't really serious art. To which the only reply could possibly be, hooray! Serious art can be great, don't get me wrong. But sometimes it's all just so... well, serious. It can give you a headache after a while. The perfect remedy for that sort of thing might be right here. Of course you can't fill up on donuts all the time, but every now and then they're just the thing.
His website is very complete and includes full galleries for every year going back to 2000. So go, and enjoy: ericjoyner.com

Scott Listfield

"Lost Highway"

"Runway"

"Alien Crossing"

"New Moon"

"Parking Ticket"

One of the things I love about Scott Listfield is that in every email announcement he includes the phrase "that guy who paints astronauts" in the subject line. The message is clear. Don't worry about the name. All you have to do is remember what he does. And once you see these, you will remember. I don't mind at all if an artist's is essentially a shtick, as long as they're totally committed to it and can pull it off with style. Scott Listfield does so by working in a flat, almost paint by numbers kind of realism that serves his pop-culture purposes beautifully. There is no doubt that humor is at the forefront of his agenda but there's more to it than that. He's equally concerned with consumer culture, references to pop-art and how both of these these play into and against the utopian and dystopian dreams of science-fiction. The dark side of his humor suggests that the more pessimistic tales of imaginative fictions better reflect the reality we live in than escapist fantasies like Star Wars that both he and the rest of us clearly love. His paintings declare that the future is now, and frankly it's a bit depressing. But Mr. Listfield examines this fact with wry wit, and I for one am grateful for it.

I posted his work once before back in September 2010 and still stand by what I wrote then as well.

You can see more at his website (astronautdinosaur.com)
or see his newest on his Tumblr blog.

Aron Wiesenfeld 3

"The Garden"  36" x 30"  2012

"Greenhouse"  33" x 30"  2012

  

"The Grove"  36" x32"  2012

"The Settlers"  25" x 20"  2012

"Delayed"  31" x40"  2012

Here's another favorite artist of mine that's well worth revisiting. Aron Wiesenfeld's work has always reminded me a little of Chris Van Allsburgh, but the psychological territory of his narratives skews somewhat older and a good deal darker. The whole idea of narrative art is to tell a story. Not the whole story of course. That's beyond the scope of a single static image. But as any connoisseur of film or fiction can tell you, it is often what you are not shown, and the things untold that evoke in us the most profound reactions. Aron Wiesenfeld's paintings are the merest glimpse into elaborate stories that the mind can't help but explore, to fill out and expand upon. His characters are young, most frequently girls, on the cusp of adulthood, and his themes are the themes of youth and coming of age; vulnerability and powerlessness, fear and insecurity, but also, and most importantly, wonder. What more could you want from a story?

If you like these images, do yourself a favor and take the time to look at more. I posted his work twice before in December 2009 and June 2011. And you can see much more at his recently updated website: www.aronwiesenfeld.com

David Blackwood

"March Wesleyville, From Bennetts High Island" 1976

"Fire Down in Labrador"  32" x 20"  1983

"The 'Friend' Bound for Labrador"  20" x 32"  2007

"Hauling Job / Sturges house"

"Visitation on Bragg"  20" x 16"  1997

While I usually post current work by younger newer artists, I am occasionally made aware of my profound ignorance of older successful living artists. David Blackwood is a case in point. His piece "Hauling Job/Sturges House" was featured on the cover of E. Annie Proulx's famous novel "The Shipping News" back in 1993. But I just wasn't paying attention. Well now I am. His narrative prints capture the history, myths, legends and life of the seafaring people of Newfoundland. It's beautiful and haunting.

You can find out more about the artist at his website: www.davidblackwood.com
But if you want to see more work you'll have to troll through the many galleries that carry it. Among them are:
www.gallery78.com
abbozzogallery.com
www.mayberryfineart.com
emmabutler.com
www.winchestergalleriesltd.com

Thank you Mr. McDevitt for the heads up.

John Brosio - 4

"Bride in Headlights"

"The Last Hot Dog"  oil on canvas  24" x30"  2013

"BFF" 27" x 36"  oil on canvas  2012

"Breaking News"  oil on canvas  18" x 24"  2013

"Dinoaurs Eating CEO"  oil on canvas  55" x 60"  2013

It's often hard for me to get back to posting after the holidays. Habits are like flywheels. It doesn't take much effort to keep them going but once they grind to a halt it's a real bitch to get them started up again. Which why I'm thankful that Mr. John Brosio is out there making new paintings for me to get excited about... AGAIN. This is my fourth post of his work (Nov. 2008, Mar. 2010, May 2011). And I really don't have much to add to anything I might have said before. All visual art ought to speak for itself. It's visual after all, and any art that requires explication for appreciation is missing the point if you ask me. John Brosio's work speaks directly to my love of dark narratives with a pitch perfect blending of painterly realism and surrealist fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Throw in a dash of humor and you're off to the races. After all, I would probably fall in love any painting titled "Dinosaurs eating CEO" no matter what it looked like. It helps that it looks looks as good as its title.
you can see more at www.johnbrosio.com
or get the latest at his Facebook page.

Stephen Hall

American Still Life"  acrylic on canvas  40" x 60"  2013

"Calavera"  acrylic on canvas  24" x 32"  2013 

"Don't Hold Your Breath"  acrylic on canvas  60" x 30"  2013

"Leap Frog"  acrylic on canvas  60" x 36"  2013

"Sinner"  acrylic on canvas  32" x 44"  2013

Here's a different take on the pop-surrealism front. Flat graphic designs depicting a bewildering array of ordinary and bizarre objects from eggbeaters to brass knuckles which are superimposed upon backgrounds, other objects, clothes or even human flesh. If it is not entirely clear what the references mean or how they relate, well, don't worry about it too much. Let the odd juxtapositions exist for their own sake and measure your response subjectively. There is humor here as well as a dark pessimism. Nature flits about the devices of human violence but their relationship is not always clear. This is the heart of surrealism. Dreams create symbols by reordering context. Metaphor is not analogy. This does not represent that. Metaphor means one thing can be interpreted as almost anything else. The human mind is designed to makes novel connections and unlikely associations and in so doing discover new meanings. Art in this sense is always a participatory affair. Though the artist works in private the art itself is not complete until new eyes receive it and reinterpret it outside that intentions of its creator. So what do you think is going on? The success of such work depends on it's ability to arrest our attention and successfully invite us to play with its ideas.
You can see more at the artist's website: www.stephenhallart.com