Following a successful exhibition held in Italy last year, our very own contributing writer and editor-at-large Sasha Bogojev has teamed up with The Garage gallery for the second edition of Universes, a showcase featuring 13 international artists who build their own cast of characters, settings, and events.
Although figuration connects each artist in practice, their individual works derive from a wide range of sources such as photography, popular culture, cartoons, comics, manga, surrealism, classic portraiture, and even abstraction. Each artist explores these inspirations through a variety of genres while living in the most dynamic and stimulating era in history. Such a vigorous work environment creates a vibrant selection of provocative images that celebrate the technique of painting traditional painting while experimenting with the whimsy of the modern world. With quirky imagery and capricious concepts, the artists reference contemporary issues through the lens of humor. Regardless, on a technical and contextual level, such works challenge the viewer, who is seduced by familiar elements yet perplexed by the overall scene.
The artists included have set a new course for contemporary figuration while navigating the art world through the use of traditional tools such as oil, charcoal, pencil, airbrush, watercolor, and tempera. Discovering new exciting ways to use and mix these, they propose inspiring concepts based on tradition based on fresh present-day influences. The collection of smaller and medium-size paintings and drawings selected for Universes 2 will create a thrilling presentation of boundary-pushing work that is likely to influence the coming trends in figurative art.
Participating artists include Anna Park, Pedro Pedro, Jonny Green, Kirsten Deirup, So Youn Lee, Baldur Helgason, Ralf Kokke, Maxwell McMaster, Trey Abdella, Gosha Levochkin, Elliot Dodd, Jur De Vries, and Royal Jarmon. Poster design by Lotte Keijzer.
Universes 2 opens November 1, 2019, with an opening reception from 5 to 8 pm, and is on view November 2nd and 3rd from 12 to 6 pm, and by appointment until November 22nd.