Opening reception on Friday, July 27th from 5:00 - 7:00 pm.
Representing the figure through paint, drawing, and ceramic may be as intrinsic and ancient to human beings as language itself. In this exhibition, Nüart Gallery presents four contemporary artists each exploring distinct expressions of figurative representation.
Alberto Gálvezis a contemporary Spanish painter whose inspiration is derived from identifiable archetypal imagery found in classical painting. He is a leader in his generation of artists who have returned to the tradition of figure painting. Gálvez paints his subjects from imagination, their features a blend of classical and contemporary beauty. Gálvez's arrestingly monumental muses often look directly at and through the viewer, their gaze at once powerful and serene.
Michael Bergt is an internationally recognized figurative artist known for his mastery of a variety of media, from his renowned egg tempera paintings and pencil drawings to bronze sculpture. Ambiguity is a central tenant in his process and allows for reflection on the paradoxes of the human condition. Using diverse sources of visual cultures from the East to the West, Bergt’s work unites the two major themes of figurative art, the sensual and the spiritual into works of delicate mastery.
James Tyler’s Brickhead installations are unique colossal heads that invite us to identify with the world’s ceramic heritages. They bring today’s faces together with pre-Columbian, South American, Native American, Asian, African, and Western influences; yet they are clearly contemporary, relics of a civilization not yet past. The ponderous weight of the brick constructions is juxtaposed with the ethereal nature of time and the constantly shifting ebb and flow of human civilizations.
Matthias Brandes is a German-born artist based in Italy whose paintings of ships, houses, and trees have the solidity of masonry and an almost anthropomorphic subjectivity. Using rich egg tempera mixed with oil paint, Brandes creates dense, surreal worlds with architecture jumbled and askew, Italian cypresses like obelisks, and ocean liners that seem at the same time massive and miniature. The subjects are full of dichotomies, with the paintings seeming to toe the line between portraiture, landscape, and still life.
