Estoterica October 10 – November 16 2015
Andrea Joyce Heimer & Dima Drjuchin
Gallery II
Gary Mellon ~ Kristen Liu-Wong ~ Jon Todd ~ LAmour Suprim ~ Kevin Hebb ~ Jesse Reno ~ Mike Egan
Esoterica Artists:
Andrea Joyce Heimer {b:1981} is a self-taught painter known for her exploration of the suburban experience, drawing inspiration from the neighborhood mythos of her childhood home in Montana. It is fragments of these stories that make up Heimer’s lush and darkly imaginative works. Part allegory, part autobiography, her tremendously detailed paintings depict scenes of heartbreak, madness and the emotional claustrophobia that stems from living as an outsider in one’s own backyard. There is darkness… but in the darkness there is beauty.
Dima Drjuchin is an artist/musician who was born in Moscow, but grew up making images and sounds in New York City. Wielding the culmination of human potential wrought from the depths of the bicameral mind, Drjuchin’s art is a hyper~dimensional machine that invokes creatures who come bounding forward with affection and recklessness. These are not the Icons of the Byzantine Church—they are the new Incarnated Symbols of the Multiverse. Drjuchin allows us a glimpse into a fractulated moment of cultural hypnagogic modality and an opportunity to alter our perspectives of reality.
Gary Mellon came to be in a small city on the shores of Michigan. A once thriving industrial center that supplied much of the lumber that built Chicago. By the 1980’s it was a skeletal remnant. Peeling paint, drafty rooms and cold sterile light, reminiscent of the Ice Palace in Dr. Zhivago. His work evokes space (both outer and inner), a psychedelic otherness, a primal reaction to the beauty and terror of life. Pink Floyd at Pompeii spliced with an ancient fertility ritual.
“It’s not just the journey inward that’s important but also that I unearth and retrieve the contents with my own hands. The point of making art to me is that I get to experience the act of birthing it. It’s a consciousness altering activity” ~GM
Kristen Liu-Wong is a Los Angeles based artist from San Francisco who studied illustration at Pratt Institute. She is influenced by altered states of reality. Liu-Wong uses her art as an escape from everyday life. Creating scenes with simple geometric shapes she attacks her work with an unapologetic vigor setting up scenes with a sweet palette… which only makes things weirder. Adolescent color and a masterful eye for color, the ordinarily flat is injected with a pop of energy that is both subtle & intense. Her work tells a creepy story that has continued to evolve into a rather “dark & sexual” body of work. Characters are used in reccurring roles that connect throughout the pieces and at times jump from piece to piece.
Jon Todd is a Toronto based mixed media artist. Todd combines many mediums in his art including painting on found objects, collaging various papers, wood block cuts and screen-printing. His artistic process involves layering various mediums coupled with distressing techniques, and it is this pairing that gives his art a unique style. Todd’s recent works are of contemporary portraitures whose bodies are adorned with intricate symbolic images. These images provide the viewer the means to decipher the character’s life story. The result is a contrasting blend of rawness and refined beauty.
Jesse Reno is a self-taught mixed media painter and has been exhibiting his work since 2000. This prolific artist has been featured in various art publications including Juxtapoz, Artnews, DPI and Artension. “His colorful works utilize various tools to create well-juxtaposed shamanic characters positioned before polychromatic backgrounds. Their refined scribble aesthetic drawing you in to further examine skilled composition and linework. Let the artwork speak for itself”~ED, Juxtapoz, Volume 101 . Reno states “My current work deals with the underlying connections of what is or appears to be fragmented and my attempt and the ability to make those connections by using instinct and emotion over logic and reason.”
LAmour Suprim influences range from street cultures of New York City, hip hop, hardcore and punk music all the way to 80’s and 90’s pop culture. He has traveled the world showcasing his work and done live painting in places like Tokyo, Stockholm, Berlin and cities across the US. His background in architectural design has given him the ability to conceive his art in 3D so as to not be limited to 2D design. He has designed products ranging from custom furniture, jewelry, cars and footwear including many projects with Mishka. LAmour Suprim would like to keep pushing the boundaries of how ordinary objects are perceived and always blending aesthetic form with function.
Kevin Hebb currently lives and works in New York City. He received his BFA in Illustration from the Art Institute of Boston.
“In the entire spectrum of human emotions. From the simplest “Stephanie gives good head” bathroom graffiti to the overexposed “HOPE”, words are still the most direct way to communicate a thought. Words are pretty great, I think I’m going to paint them for a while.” ~ KH
Mike Egan’s paintings tend to deal with life, death and religion. Through his experiences working in funeral homes for the last five years, he has become quite familiar with all three subjects. His inspiration comes from many different sources: The German Expressionists, stained glass windows, Halloween, Southern folk art, funeral homes, horror films, music, lowbrow/outsider art, Religious icons, etc. Egan likes to think that each painting is in some way a good bye to somebody who passed away, a funeral portrait.