The Contemporaries May 13 – June 18, 2017
The Contemporaries
Artists
Sylvia Hommert
“Light and the reflection of light, how it interacts in an environment, is a constant thread that flows through my work. I am captivated by the silvery light glistening off alpine icicles and the lavender iridescence of sunset on water. It’s elusive, full of movement, ever changing, and it’s this ephemeral quality that intrigues me. How the passing of time plays off the luminous surfaces of each painting–the highs and lows, the shadows and relief. The color subtly shifts too, as the light moves through a space from sunrise to sunset, or as you move through the room. An organic calendar that clocks both physical movement and the passage of time.
My technique has evolved as a way to capture the liquid and fluid nature of light, and I am drawn to materials that enhance and illuminate: pearly paua shell, metal leaf, holographic paper, crystalline mineral salts, beeswax, resin. By building up layers of materials from the opaque to translucent to transparent, then using a flame to burn away portions, I create depth and texture. Exposing elements that are underneath holds a hint of mystery that’s akin to uncovering buried treasure. Introducing dimension as a factor, I can express not only surface texture and depth, but different perspectives; the highs and lows offering yet another way to play with and capture light.” -Sylvia Hommert
Troy Gua
“I produce Pop-infused conceptual work in a wide range of media, marrying commerciality to contemporary with a glossy design aesthetic and a keen wit. My subject matter addresses contemporary culture and the ways in which media, iconography, identity, cultural self-critique, and the universal human need for recognition play parts within it. My methods of fabrication are as eclectic as the results, and my media of choice is whatever best serves the piece, whether it be paint, print, plaster, photography, cast resin, found object, sculptural intervention, video, etc.
I’m both fascinated with and repelled by our contemporary culture. That ambiguity is reflected in the work I make. Is it exalting or condemning its subject matter? Can it do both simultaneously?” -Troy Gua
Andre Veloux
The main focus of his work, is a feminist, gender equality and women’s rights project, which explores the way women are viewed by the media and society’s expectations of them. One series includes portraits of feminist icons, strong, powerful and self-motivated women, some of whom have reached iconic status for their work and influence, and in themselves are agents of change in society. A second series includes playful composite portraits, created from blending features of different faces to create a single visual. These comment on the constant demands on women to continually rebuild and renew how they present themselves. A set of works, titled Freedom Without Judgement, depict women’s clothing and appearance, and defend the right to present one’s self freely, without fearing judgment or intervention from others. Further to these works are a series of diptychs, “Briefs and Panties”, which illustrate the different form, function and ultimately judgement of men and women through the underwear they wear.
All of Andre Veloux’s work is made with commercially available Lego bricks. Lego, in all its various forms, is at the same time limiting as well as limitless in its possibilities. The color palette is limited yet consistent, and the basic “pixel” size is also fixed. Yet at the same time, it is a hard, durable, tactile and lightweight material; it can be reused, replaced and altered at will, and provides a myriad of different possibilities due to the different available shaped bricks, tiles and plates, with the exciting opportunity to create the 3-dimensional and textural aspects of the art.
Patrick Dintino
Born in San Francisco, California, Patrick Dintino grew up in Sunnyvale, in the south bay area. During the time of his youth the region was covered with cherry and apricot orchards, which were soon replaced by business parks with the advent of the ‘Silcon Valley’ tech boom. He went to college in San Diego earning a BA degree in Industrial Arts from San Diego State University, and co-founded Artists in Motion art collective, a group of artists who created funk-art fashion, sculpture and furniture out of reclaimed materials. He also formed a band called ‘Naked Earth,’ and handled the art direction for Ecodisc Records. He moved back to the Bay Area and earned a Masters of Fine Art degree at the California College of Arts and Crafts(CCA) in San Francisco and Oakland in 2001. Dintino was invited as a guest artist to work with Sol LeWitt to create “Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective” at SFMOMA. Since this time he’s been a finalist for SFMOMA’s SECA emerging artist award, a Pollock/Krasner Foundation Grant recipient, and participated in a group show called ‘The Future of Abstraction’ at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. He currently teaches painting at California College of the Arts (Oakland/San Francisco, CA).
Tom Berenz is an accomplished young painter and professor at University of Wisconsin. His paintings have been exhibited nationally and featured in multiple publications, most notably, New American Paintings and Huffington Post. Tom has received numerous awards and accolades, including Best Painting Award NWC Biennale – National Weather Center, 2013 and MFA Joan Mitchell, University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI, 2012. His work “blurs the line between abstraction and realism” and fuses personal experiences with sociopolitical, environmental and ideological issues. Tom investigates the language and possibilities of twodimensional space through his work, often using the motif of disaster as a metaphor. His paintings are complex and beautiful, as they delicately balance on the line between organization and chaos.
Denis Randall
“Inspired by repurposing discarded materials and objects, my reclaimed wood pieces are an assemblage of naturally eroded parts of common man-made structures. Crumbling painted benches, cracked window panes, sun-scorched driftwood, and rusted metal objects are among the many found materials that are given a new life.” -Denis Randall
Ben Grant
“In my paintings, combinations of shapes, patterns, and textures serve as a kind of syntax; rigidly composed blocks filled with patterns of geometrically precise stripes form shifting relationships as their colors and spatial orientations coexist with and resist one another. Occasional blocks allow room for the more organic seeming vocabulary of staining or marbling, their randomness at deliberate odds with their more severe neighbors. Still others seek a middle ground by foregrounding a less hard edged, handcrafted technique. The colored bands in my paintings are applied using a myriad of different techniques including rolling, brushing, spraying, sanding, drawing, and tearing. Each application and its resultant visual effect carries echoes of every day material objects such as fabrics, custom cars, game boards, and carnival rides. By manipulating the panels’ surface qualities I am not only forming what I intend to be a stimulating visual experience, but am also managing a range of vernacular references that add up to a legible, but semantically complex whole. In recent pieces, curvilinear forms add to the range of possible syntactical combinations, allowing for an even more complex and expressive investigation of the medium’s potential to engage the viewer. These later works more fully acknowledge the possibility of representation without surrendering a commitment to abstraction as a fertile environment for the demonstration of painting’s unique appeal…..” -Ben Grant
Dan Tague is a multi-media artist, curator, and activist from New Orleans whose multi-faceted work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. He is well-known for his dollar bill series that is a hybrid of sculpture, photography and political commentary. Tague often addresses the issues of contemporary life by rendering powerful visual statements. Installations, photography, and artistic activism are his means of confronting and responding to the concerns of today’s world.
Hellbent is a New York based street artist whose known for his vibrant use of color, decorative motifs and pattern in his vivid abstract paintings and murals. Music is at the core of Hellbent’s art with its brightly color strips and contrasting patterns. Not only did he base his street name off of the punk musician, Richard Hell, but he names his works after songs that he listens to while creating them. His intense love for music spans a variety of genres that include punk, country, and indie rock.
Besides his floral patterns and incredible stencil work, Hellbent’s work is sometimes distinguished by a jaw bone. He explained that the jaw bone idea came to him after reading a story about Freud’s battle with jaw cancer. The story goes that Freud was saved from a sudden hemorrhage by his hospital roommate – who happened to be a dwarf! Hellbent explains that the jaw also suggests the importance of basic human functions such as speaking and eating.
Jeremy Brown is South African born and Australian raised. The artist currently works and lives in Atlanta. He is inspired by compassion, color and all things abstract and educated by pain, freedom and the words of others wiser.
Shawn Watrous is a San Francisco native working in a variety of mediums, including acrylic, graphite, patterned fabric, printing ink, charcoal, drawing and print papers, translucent vellum and digital photography. Using a layering process, he creates images that deal with memory and identity.
Songan Brunner is currently focused on creating abstract art based on his vision of universal oneness and being connected to something larger then oneself. His mixed media works utilize acrylic, house paint, spray paint, crayon, and graphite along with wood, paper, cardboard, fabric, metal, earth, and other found objects. Songan tends to work in a series format. He has exhibited his work globally and his work hangs in collections in Australia, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and the US.