We are pleased to share with you the latest body of work from Steven L. Anderson from our Narratives exhibition which will be on display through July 12th @kailinart
Thanks to Valentin Sivyakov Photography for the incredible photos
For inquiries and availability or to schedule a tour of the gallery, please connect with us at 404 408 4248
Happy Summer!
NARRATIVES
We are excited to announce our fourth exhibition of 2024 :: NARRATIVES, a group exhibition featuring Steven L. Anderson, Todd Anderson, Kiara Gilbert, Landon Perkins and Kaya Faery.
We would like to invite you to our:
DEFINE :: MEET + GREET
Friday, May 17th, 2024
6:00 - 8:00pm
The exhibition will run through May 24th. Please take a look below and connect with us at the gallery if you’re interested in any pieces from the show!
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you to our:
DEFINE Exhibition
MEET + GREET
Friday, May 17th, 2024
6:00 - 8:00pm
The exhibition will run through May 24th. Please take a look below and connect with us at the gallery if you’re interested in any pieces from the show!
Ekphrasis
Curatorial Statement
Honor Bowman Hall | Kai Lin Art
Featuring artists Ben Tollefson, Michael O'Brien, Zoltan Gerliczki, Dove McHargue, Gregory Eltringham, Holly Matthews, and Matt Robertson
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.-Musee des Beux Arts, W.H. Auden
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
Ekphrasis (Greek) translates to “description” in English. However, the word is most used to describe the detailed description of a work of art through written language as a literary device. The excerpt from Auden’s poem above serves as an example.
I have named this exhibition Ekphrasis because the word captures the way the artists here have approached their subjects and it captures the perceptual experience of viewing an artwork and translating the visual into information. Both processes are descriptive.
While the artwork I make in my practice as a painter is not figurative, I first came to love art through my fascination with masterful pictorial description of the human form. When I worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in my early 20s, I used to go sit in the American Wing in front of John Singer Sargent’s Madame X. At times, I felt that I could see her breathing. I could imagine her trying to stand still, holding her posture straight. Maybe the room was cold—her ears and the tip of her nose are very slightly flushed. While perhaps less elegant, Duane Hanson’s 1977 sculpture Woman with Dog is another favorite for the same reason—the scene expands in the viewer’s mind. The woman and dog are familiar characters and our mind’s eye fills in the blanks, asking questions and imagining the unpictured characters, the day’s events, and the scene beyond the little rug. Here, the artwork is a window onto a more expansive story. The figures are uncanny, banal, and completely compelling simultaneously as we look on, and as Elkin’s writes, the object stares back.
The paintings and photographs in this exhibition are contemporary examples of descriptive, figure-based work by artists living right here in Georgia in 2024. Masterful, contemporary, and connected by a commitment to capturing/describing their subject: the figure, identity, the human condition and story. Like Madame X and Woman with Dog, these pictures are also descriptive of their time and tell a story about how art can illuminate the boundaries of social conversations about taste, convention, and society.
One of my favorite examples of ekphrasis comes from Chapter 19 of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Villette. The narrator, Lucy, visits a Belgian museum and offers her thoughts on a large-scale painting entitled Cleopatra. While Lucy has a cynical take on the artwork’s model (too fat) and comments on the immodesty of the sitter’s dress as a stunt for spectacle’s sake, the epic scale of the artwork and the title make an impression on her. She calls it “the queen of the collection.” Isn’t it funny how we size up and appraise representations of the human figure the same way we size up and appraise a real person? The urge to consider, judge and connect is automatic.
Bronte’s ekphrasis through Lucy’s eyes of the height, weight, and presence of the figure is captivating. The scene begins with Lucy offering these thoughts on her visit to the museum and her experience of the artworks, “…there were fragments of truth here and there which satisfied the conscience, and gleams of light that cheered the vision…An expression in this portrait proved clear insight into the character; a face in that historical painting, by its vivid filial likeness, startingly reminded you that genius gave it birth.”
Like Auden’s poem, this passage hits on the miraculous power that visual storytelling holds. We look past the surface of a figurative artwork into the eyes of the subject, and search for a reflection of our own experience there (colored by our biases, desires, assumptions, and position in the world). At times tongue in cheek and edgy, at times poetic, but always fictional, the collection of images curated into this show is a celebration of visual storytelling about the human experience in art objects, and the expressive, descriptive power of artistry in paint and light.
Honor Bowman Hall | Biography
Honor Bowman Hall (b. 1984) is an artist and educator living and working in Savannah, GA.
Hall is from Roanoke, Virginia and holds a BA in Studio Art and English from the University of Mary Washington (class of 2006). After moving to New York in 2007, where she worked in the music industry and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hall relocated to Savannah and received her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Following her graduate studies, she lived in Anchorage, Alaska from 2013-2017 and was the manager of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art (IGCA), the only not-for-profit exhibition space in Anchorage solely dedicated to contemporary art.
In addition to her work promoting and programming experimental art and facilitating exhibitions and events at IGCA, Hall also created two large murals in Alaska, including one at the Anchorage Museum, and taught Painting and Design courses at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Now based in Savannah for a second time, Hall is the Dean of the School of Fine Arts and the School of Visual Communication at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
Hall graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in Painting in 2014. During her MFA candidacy, she was selected for a solo studio fellowship at the Elizabeth Foundation in New York, NY in conjunction with the SCAD Painting Department, and was selected to hold her thesis exhibition in conjunction with SCAD’s annual de:FINE Art event. Since her return to SCAD in 2017 as a member of the faculty, Hall continues to exhibit her work at SCAD. She has produced two murals for the university’s Savannah campus, and her artwork is featured on SCAD busses in Savannah and Atlanta.
Hall has held artist-in-residence positions in Savannah, Georgia, Richmond, Virginia and New York, New York and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Her paintings appear in several public and private collections.
Hall is a member of the Friendship Magic Collective, an ongoing two-person art and music project for which she paints and plays cello. FMC’s most recent exhibition, Homecoming, was reviewed for Art Pulse Magazine #33.
We are pleased to share with you our latest collection of nine new works from resident Kai Lin Artist, Joe Camoosa.
In this body of work, Camoosa explores patterning and layering, color theory and maximalism, dynamic rhythm and musical motion, frenetic connections and serene brushstrokes.
Most all these works are named after musical terms. From his Magnus opus piece “This Side Up”, Camoosa’s signature language is evident in his use of painted, transparent shapes that plop and drop across the canvas in a delicately precise stratification wherein shapes are hidden and then exposed. The effect of these patterns create a three-dimensional illusion on the two-dimensional plane. There’s almost no place the eye doesn’t stop exploring. One element leads into another, perhaps a mental mind map of psychological angst and analysis.
Our exhibition of DEFINE will be on display at the gallery through May 24th, 2024. For inquiries and availability connect with us at the gallery at 404 408 4248 or info@kailinart.com
Joe Camoosa Statement
“Much like seeing patterns in random data or faces and shapes in the clouds, my work strives to induce a contemplative shift in perception for the viewer. I’m fascinated by the momentary in-between space alternating between abstraction and recognition - of being someplace and nowhere at the same time. My paintings and drawings explore the relationships between shape, color, and pattern and are informed by my love for architecture, music, and cartography.”
Joe Camoosa Bio
Joe Camoosa (b. 1969, Asbury Park, NJ) lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. He received an MFA in painting and drawing from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia and graduated from Florida State University where he studied Mass Communication and Anthropology. His work is held in numerous corporate and private collections and has been exhibited in galleries in Atlanta, Nashville, Asheville, Richmond and New York, and museums such as MOCA GA, Atlanta Contemporary, The Hudgens Center for the Arts, The Georgia Museum of Art, and The Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the Studio Artists Program at Atlanta Contemporary, a 2016-2017 Walthall Artist Fellow and is represented by Kai Lin Art, Atlanta. Camoosa is currently an adjunct instructor at The Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University.
Ekphrasis
Curatorial Statement
Honor Bowman Hall | Kai Lin Art
Featuring artists Ben Tollefson, Michael O'Brien, Zoltan Gerliczki, Dove McHargue, Gregory Eltringham, Holly Matthews, and Matt Robertson
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.-Musee des Beux Arts, W.H. Auden
Ekphrasis (Greek) translates to “description” in English. However, the word is most used to describe the detailed description of a work of art through written language as a literary device. The excerpt from Auden’s poem above serves as an example.
I have named this exhibition Ekphrasis because the word captures the way the artists here have approached their subjects and it captures the perceptual experience of viewing an artwork and translating the visual into information. Both processes are descriptive.
While the artwork I make in my practice as a painter is not figurative, I first came to love art through my fascination with masterful pictorial description of the human form. When I worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in my early 20s, I used to go sit in the American Wing in front of John Singer Sargent’s Madame X. At times, I felt that I could see her breathing. I could imagine her trying to stand still, holding her posture straight. Maybe the room was cold—her ears and the tip of her nose are very slightly flushed. While perhaps less elegant, Duane Hanson’s 1977 sculpture Woman with Dog is another favorite for the same reason—the scene expands in the viewer’s mind. The woman and dog are familiar characters and our mind’s eye fills in the blanks, asking questions and imagining the unpictured characters, the day’s events, and the scene beyond the little rug. Here, the artwork is a window onto a more expansive story. The figures are uncanny, banal, and completely compelling simultaneously as we look on, and as Elkin’s writes, the object stares back.
The paintings and photographs in this exhibition are contemporary examples of descriptive, figure-based work by artists living right here in Georgia in 2024. Masterful, contemporary, and connected by a commitment to capturing/describing their subject: the figure, identity, the human condition and story. Like Madame X and Woman with Dog, these pictures are also descriptive of their time and tell a story about how art can illuminate the boundaries of social conversations about taste, convention, and society.
One of my favorite examples of ekphrasis comes from Chapter 19 of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Villette. The narrator, Lucy, visits a Belgian museum and offers her thoughts on a large-scale painting entitled Cleopatra. While Lucy has a cynical take on the artwork’s model (too fat) and comments on the immodesty of the sitter’s dress as a stunt for spectacle’s sake, the epic scale of the artwork and the title make an impression on her. She calls it “the queen of the collection.” Isn’t it funny how we size up and appraise representations of the human figure the same way we size up and appraise a real person? The urge to consider, judge and connect is automatic.
Bronte’s ekphrasis through Lucy’s eyes of the height, weight, and presence of the figure is captivating. The scene begins with Lucy offering these thoughts on her visit to the museum and her experience of the artworks, “…there were fragments of truth here and there which satisfied the conscience, and gleams of light that cheered the vision…An expression in this portrait proved clear insight into the character; a face in that historical painting, by its vivid filial likeness, startingly reminded you that genius gave it birth.”
Like Auden’s poem, this passage hits on the miraculous power that visual storytelling holds. We look past the surface of a figurative artwork into the eyes of the subject, and search for a reflection of our own experience there (colored by our biases, desires, assumptions, and position in the world). At times tongue in cheek and edgy, at times poetic, but always fictional, the collection of images curated into this show is a celebration of visual storytelling about the human experience in art objects, and the expressive, descriptive power of artistry in paint and light.
Honor Bowman Hall | Biography
Honor Bowman Hall (b. 1984) is an artist and educator living and working in Savannah, GA.
Hall is from Roanoke, Virginia and holds a BA in Studio Art and English from the University of Mary Washington (class of 2006). After moving to New York in 2007, where she worked in the music industry and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hall relocated to Savannah and received her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Following her graduate studies, she lived in Anchorage, Alaska from 2013-2017 and was the manager of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art (IGCA), the only not-for-profit exhibition space in Anchorage solely dedicated to contemporary art.
In addition to her work promoting and programming experimental art and facilitating exhibitions and events at IGCA, Hall also created two large murals in Alaska, including one at the Anchorage Museum, and taught Painting and Design courses at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Now based in Savannah for a second time, Hall is the Dean of the School of Fine Arts and the School of Visual Communication at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
Hall graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in Painting in 2014. During her MFA candidacy, she was selected for a solo studio fellowship at the Elizabeth Foundation in New York, NY in conjunction with the SCAD Painting Department, and was selected to hold her thesis exhibition in conjunction with SCAD’s annual de:FINE Art event. Since her return to SCAD in 2017 as a member of the faculty, Hall continues to exhibit her work at SCAD. She has produced two murals for the university’s Savannah campus, and her artwork is featured on SCAD busses in Savannah and Atlanta.
Hall has held artist-in-residence positions in Savannah, Georgia, Richmond, Virginia and New York, New York and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Her paintings appear in several public and private collections.
Hall is a member of the Friendship Magic Collective, an ongoing two-person art and music project for which she paints and plays cello. FMC’s most recent exhibition, Homecoming, was reviewed for Art Pulse Magazine #33.
DEFINE : a group exhibition
We are excited to announce our third exhibition of 2024 :: DEFINE a group exhibition featuring Joe Camoosa, Coki Panda, Rod Ben, Sanithna, Sean Sweeney, Chris Veal, Jonny Warren, Fabian Williams, Killamari and Adam Wellborn.
Please join us for our WOVEN Artist Talk featuring Sandy Teepen, Philip Carpenter, Chloe Alexander, Marc Boyson and Lauren Lesley as they discuss their latest body of work:
WOVEN ARTIST TALK
Saturday, April 6th, 2024
5:00 - 6:00pm*
Thank you to Valentin Sivyakov for the awesome photos from our opening.. Enjoy the photos and see you for the talk!
KAI LIN ART crew
404 408 4248
*The talk will begin promptly at 5pm so please come at least 15 minutes early
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to share with you The Art of WOVEN featuring all new works by Sandy Teepen, Chloe Alexander, Philip Carpenter, Marc Boyson, and Lauren Lesley. Thank you to Valentin Sivyakov Photography for the awesome shots.
Please enjoy these works and swing by the gallery during the run of the exhibition for a closer look! The exhibit will run through April 12th.
For availability please reach out the gallery at 404 408 4248.
Happy M{art}ch!
We are pleased to announce our second exhibition of 2024 : WOVEN :: a group exhibition featuring Sandy Teepen, Marc Boyson, Chloe Alexander, Philip Carpenter, Lauren Lesley
WOVEN :: A GROUP EXHIBITION FEATURING
SANDY TEEPEN, MARC BOYSON, PHILIP CARPENTER, CHLOE ALEXANDER, LAUREN LESLEY
Philip Carpenter
Making color pencil drawings replaced painting for me, but the processes are similar in that each drawing requires its own painterly invention to describe surfaces and to create effective illusions. My interests sometimes wander, lured by the pleasures of irony, but I always return to making portraits of ordinary things, mostly utilitarian objects that seem to find me. Some are even the vestiges of my former work as a painter. I meticulously record the beauty of their wear as my way of honoring their often unknowable histories. The drawings combine my knack for realism with my minimalist sensibilities.
Marc Boyson
My practice is grounded in the trace that references the invisible line of autobiographical data. The line reveals my daily movement, however small, over a surface, between buildings, work, errands, day trips, or longer journeys. These everyday movements become a journal of intuition, memory, and GPS records. The simple act of leaving a marc.
Chloe Alexander
My printmaking practice is a delicate balance between precision and spontaneity, allowing me to create images that are both deliberate and intuitive. The repetitive nature of the print process introduces an element of rhythm and ritual, turning each print into a reflection of patience and dedication. Nostalgia, a universal emotion, is a cornerstone of my artistic exploration. The interplay of colors, textures, and figuration creates a visual language that serves to transcend the ephemeral nature of spoken words, inviting the viewer to navigate the landscape of their memories that I aspire to recall to the conscious mind. Just as printmaking has long been used to disseminate messages, I hope that a broad audience can access the universality of the motifs that I employ. Once immersed in these visual narratives, they may add to, alter, or reimagine the intent of the work based on their assumptions or lived experiences- an acknowledgment of the familiarity and fleeting recollections that resonate within us all.
Lauren Lesley
Lauren Lesley's body of work contains graphite and charcoal drawings which reflect on specific time periods throughout her life. Each one represents subjects that she has a strong emotional connection to but is physically disconnected from; pets, poignant childhood mementos, and details of events and life moments that weave together concepts of meaning, memory, identity, and the passing of time. The act of unearthing, reconstructing, and highlighting these recollections decreases the emotional distance between the artist and the subjects by allowing her to revisit and meticulously revive them with each stroke of a pencil.
Sandy Teepen
There is a thread that runs through Sandy’s life. In fact, there are lots of threads running through it. A fabric artist, Sandy has worked in a wide variety of fabric forms – weaving, costuming, and her current emphasis, quilted collage. Her collages combine traditional forms and imagery with contemporary color sensibilities and design. Her work has been shown in numerous quilt and art exhibitions including the Georgia National Fair and the widely acclaimed Quilts in the Garden event in Livermore, CA.
We are pleased to share with you photos from the opening of The New South V! Thank you to Valentin Sivyakov Photography.
Also please join us for our
The New South V
“Meet The Artists”
Saturday, February 17th, 2024
4:00 - 6:00pm
For inquiries and availability, please contact the gallery at 404 408 4248
As an Artist, and Art Educator entrusted with the task of selecting artworks for the prestigious New South V exhibition, I found myself drawing parallels between my role and the nostalgic joy of creating mixtapes. Just as a mixtape is a carefully organized collection of songs, this exhibition called for a discerning eye to curate a cohesive and compelling display of artistic expressions. With an abundance of art in the world, the call for submissions presented an exciting opportunity to bring together a visual tapestry that would resonate with viewers on multiple levels.
In approaching this endeavor, I considered the diverse interests and sensibilities of the exhibition's audience. Like crafting a mixtape for someone who appreciates different musical elements, I sought to cater to the viewers' love for various aspects of art. From the captivating depiction of figures to the meticulous attention to formal issues, from the immersive landscapes to the evocative play of lighting, each artwork was chosen with the intention of creating a rich and engaging experience.
Through thoughtful conversations with Wesley, my aim was to strike a harmonious balance between different artistic styles and themes. Just as a mixtape weaves together different genres and moods, this exhibition aims to create a tapestry of artistic expressions that captivates and inspires. By showcasing the diverse beauty of art, I hope to invite viewers to explore and appreciate the vast creative possibilities that lie within the realm of visual art.
William Downs, Artist,Educator and Co-Director of Day & Night Projects
New South V : The Gestalt Result
Have you ever been to a party where you spent the evening speaking with a lot of different people? You were carried along by a shared stream of consciousness, responding to memories, impressions, chance encounters, verbal processing of recent events, and offering empathy, comradery, or commiseration. By the end of the evening, you’ve been all over, mentally, you’re left with an overall impression of the experience. The variety of conversations are simultaneously mixing and contrasting in your head. You have a sense of the “conversation” of the evening. I’ll refer to this, for the sake of writing, as “The Gestalt Result”.
This is what I was left with after viewing all the entries. Each of the submissions had a distinct thing to say. Some spoke quite clearly and pointedly to one another. Others offered surprising contrast or contradictions that enlivened the conversation.
I was left with the impression of drifting through a party, catching bits of conversations as I went, stepping back, and letting the common themes of the conversations meld together to an overall impression, and then, after reflection, going back to revisit the conversation and add detail to some of the impressions.
The “conversation” is the theme that I am always looking for in collections of work, be it by an individual or a group. What is the “conversation” between the works? How do I see similarity or difference with concept, compositions, value, texture, use of color, shape, etc.? This is what produces the impression that is beyond a specific work. The conversation that grows beyond listening to one person dominate the party. This is “The Gestalt Result” and, for me, it makes viewing more exciting and fulfilling. I’m left with the same impression as when I’ve left a party filled with different conversations.
The impressions that people would gain from going to the same party will be as different as the people themselves. The content of the conversations is filtered through our own preferences, hindrances, and chance. The impression is formed with the influence of our history, mood, expectations, etc. My hope is that the individuals experiencing The New South V will leave with their own “Gestalt Result” that will have some highlights (stand-out conversations) and will remain as a stream of thought for them long after they have returned home.
Wesley Terpstra, Educator / Artist
The New South V will be on display through March 1st @kailinart
We will be hosting a “MEET THE ARTISTS” on
Saturday, February 17th
from 4:00 - 6:00pm
Please connect with us at the gallery at 404 408 4248 bif you are interested in any of the works from the exhibit. Enjoy the art!
We are pleased to share with you The Art of The New South V :: our annual juried works on paper exhibition featuring 57 creators from across the Southeast now on exhibit @kailinart through March 1st.
Save the date for our
“Meet The New South V Artists”
Saturday, February 17th
4:00 - 6:00pm
We are pleased to invite you to our first exhibition of 2024, our annual works on paper exhibition THE NEW SOUTH V.
This exhibition features 56 artists creating works from across the Southeast. There were over 800 submissions of which 80 works were selected by our esteemed jurors William Downs and Wesley Terpstra.
New South V: The Gestalt Result
by Wesley TerpstraHave you ever been to a party where you spent the evening speaking with a lot of different people? You were carried along by a shared stream of consciousness, responding to memories, impressions, chance encounters, verbal processing of recent events, and offering empathy, comradery, or commiseration. By the end of the evening, you’ve been all over, mentally, you’re left with an overall impression of the experience. The variety of conversations are simultaneously mixing and contrasting in your head. You have a sense of the “conversation” of the evening. I’ll refer to this, for the sake of writing, as “The Gestalt Result”.
This is what I was left with after viewing all the entries. Each of the submissions had a distinct thing to say. Some spoke quite clearly and pointedly to one another. Others offered surprising contrast or contradictions that enlivened the conversation.
I was left with the impression of drifting through a party, catching bits of conversations as I went, stepping back, and letting the common themes of the conversations meld together to an overall impression, and then, after reflection, going back to revisit the conversation and add detail to some of the impressions.
The “conversation” is the theme that I am always looking for in collections of work, be it by an individual or a group. What is the “conversation” between the works? How do I see similarity or difference with concept, compositions, value, texture, use of color, shape, etc.? This is what produces the impression that is beyond a specific work. The conversation that grows beyond listening to one person dominate the party. This is “The Gestalt Result” and, for me, it makes viewing more exciting and fulfilling. I’m left with the same impression as when I’ve left a party filled with different conversations.
The impressions that people would gain from going to the same party will be as different as the people themselves. The content of the conversations is filtered through our own preferences, hindrances, and chance. The impression is formed with the influence of our history, mood, expectations, etc. My hope is that the individuals experiencing The New South V will leave with their own “Gestalt Result” that will have some highlights (stand-out conversations) and will remain as a stream of thought for them long after they have returned home.
Vintage iconography through the contemporary lens of painter Spencer Herr now on exhibition at Kai Lin Art
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
A gleamingly nostalgic Americana is envisioned through the paintings of Asheville, NC-based Spencer Herr in his latest collection of four artworks now launched at Kai Lin Art in Atlanta, GA.
Each of these immaculate pieces are encased in an ornately hand-built frame that casts an attractively dense shadowbox, beckoning viewers to the painted canvases. We are transported by Herr’s amusing scenes of illustrative characters, much like animation cartoon production cells of the 1940s.
In his Illusions of Separation, a South Pacific sailor holds a map of the Grand Canyon while a pin-up girl in front nonchalantly holds a hammer in one hand while sucking her thumb with another. Her partially dis-robed bustier seductively invites the viewer into her psyche. The sailor pierces his grayed gaze onto an adorably animated bluebird, naively swooping toward the two characters, carefree and blithe. The whole piece is a sublime contemporary update of Gil Elvgren’s pin-up girl illustrations of yesteryear.
In Isaiah’s Spring, we get a prophetic cornucopia of intentionally disparate icons from pop culture. Thumper of Disney’s Bambi sets the tone as his wide-eyed gait excitedly peers past a flying orange butterfly, with its shadow casted across the uniform of one of the three army green plastic toy soldiers saluting the viewer in a stoic gaze. To their right we find a soldier in action with one hand on their holster and the other on a walkie talkie. Enveloping these characters is an oversized round cake with frosting only atop the cake and through its layers of sponge and strawberry preserves, with a gorgeously rendered cherry on top. A whimsical bluebird looks directly at us seemingly saying, “I know this is crazy, but you’re the one looking”.
In his signature piece, Anointed, Herr leans in fully on an idealized femininity, with two Cinderella mice dancing atop the brim of a lawn mowing pin-up brunette. She is in mid work-mode while the birds above her whistle a happy tune. In the background we find the behemoth El Capitan rock formation, painted deftly with a hazy blur. Her sky blue eyes follow us wherever we look, much like Mona Lisa’s pupils, enigmatic and elusive.
Spencer Herr has leveled up his art from his previous body of work by synthesizing the vintage with the contemporary, gracefully recombining iconographic pop cultural imagery in unexpectedly alluring ways.
Please enjoy the photos below of the opening of ALLURE.
Thanks to Valentin Sivyakov Photography for the shots!
We are so pleased with the reception to our last opening for 2023 of ALLURE featuring Lela Brunet, Spencer Herr, Cameron Bliss, Patrick Heagney and Krista Grecco. Please visit our gallery throughout the holidays, the show will be ongoing through December 29th.
If you have an interest in any of the works, visit the gallery or reach out at 404 408 4248.
Cheers!
Yu-Kai Lin
info@kailinart.com
ALLURE :: A GROUP EXHIBITION FEATURING
LELA BRUNET, CAMERON BLISS, PATRICK HEAGNEY, KRISTA GRECCO, SPENCER HERR
We are pleased to announce our seventh exhibition for 2023 : ALLURE featuring Lela Brunet, Cameron Bliss, Patrick Heagney, Krista Grecco, and Spencer Herr.
LELA BRUNET
For many years Artist Lela Brunet has exclusively worked on large-scale murals and street art throughout Atlanta and the Southeast. This new series of Fine Art will be her first time back in the studio in five years. This was both exciting and frightening for the artist to flex this long dormant muscle. Creating work in the privacy of her own studio (with no outside input) gave her an opportunity to relearn to be okay with mistakes, exploration, and discovery in her art making. This new series her slowly stepping out of her comfort zone and becoming more confident and bolder in her choices. In this new series she found her joy in making art again by pulling from her past style and from her years creating murals. Decorative floral motifs, heavy usage of metallic leaf, street art tagging patterns, retro color palettes, and elegant graphite female figures are just a few of the elements throughout this new collection of work.
SPENCER HERR
Employing nostalgia sourced from children's books, advertisements and American art history these paintings hint at the separation we often feel. From the past, future, each other, and the land. However, at least here, separation is an illusion. At the same time and almost paradoxically they are imbued with joy and hope as they play into the unknown, relying on each other to imagine and construct a better future no matter what comes.
CAMERON BLISS
From simplistic backgrounds to complex interiors rich with plant life, patterns and symbolism, my autobiographical paintings are formed from fragments of past memories, dreams and experiences. As one views the figures in my paintings, one might feel as though they suddenly interrupted an intimate exchange suspended in time. I try to paint authentic souls existing in their mundane realness. My art has always been a way for me to make sense of the world around me in the same way that dreams help us uncover what is hidden beneath the obvious surface, and to delve deeper into understanding our own personal truths.
PATRICK HEAGNEY : 'Time Away'
One of the ironies of the greater social connectivity of the 21st century is that it often comes at the cost of being connected to ourselves and the present moment. It is easier than ever to be detached, lost in anxieties about the future or ruminations on the past. We focus on things that aren’t happening right now, right here. In this state, consciousness, identity, memory, and perception are disconnected.
These moments-that-are-not-moments build upon one another. Over time, they shape an entire life that is fragmented—disconnected.
This body of work is a romanticized visual representation of dissociation: zoning out, mental escape, not being present.
There are three physical layers to each work. The back layer represents the original experience itself; it is the only solid layer. The other layers are largely transparent, allowing a glimpse at the experience but obscuring it at the same time.
The middle layer depicts the person in that moment, separated by physical space from the original experience, representing their detachment from the present. They are close to it but they can’t touch it—in a way, they were never really there in the first place. It contains a relatively straightforward depiction of our subject.
The third layer, the layer the viewer must view the other components through, represents the haze and imperfections of memory, looking back on a moment they never fully experienced, separated by physical and emotional space both from who they were at the time, during the original experience. This layer is the only layer the viewer—observing the scene after the fact—can touch.
KRISTA GRECCO
I am drawn to objects that have a history and a story to tell. At home and in the studio, I surround myself with bits of nature, curiosities, and nostalgic trinkets. Dried mushrooms, gnawed bones, old toys, and tattered stuffed animals line the shelves and feed my imagination. I treasure these objects for their narrative and formal appeal. They are beautifully weathered, abstracted, and colorful. Surfaces and details may have faded over time, but the emotions tied to these objects are palpable.
Much like the objects I collect and treasure, my figurative and animal sculptures tell a story. They are fully realized characters; flawed but strong, sad but hopeful, playing the part of the reluctant protagonist in their own unfinished stories. Gesture, form, proportion, and color are pushed, stretched, and simplified to enhance the narrative and highlight emotion.
Thank you to all who made it out to our AURA exhibition! Our show has now been extended through October 27th, for your viewing pleasure.
Thank you also to Valentin Sivyakov Photography for the fantastic photos from the opening.
For inquiries and availability, please contact the gallery at 404 408 4248 or come by the gallery. For a recent article on the 21 female and non-binary artists:
AURA radiates in this astonishing exhibition at Kai Lin Art
And for all your artful necessities:
