VARNISH FINE ART
GALLERY 1988
STEVEN WOLF FINE ARTS
San Francisco, 10.10.08
Varnish Fine Art:
Fallen: Carlos Huante and Jose Ismael Fernandez
Artists: Carlos Huante and Jose Ismael Fernandez
Fallen pairs a collection of works by two artists who capture the human form in movement, dynamism, flight, and anguish. Carlos Huante's materials are described as digital media on archival paper and they combine the qualities of pencil, charcoal, and water color, and through digital enhancements create a palette of rich and subtle dark hues. His renderings of the human figure and monstrous derivations thereof appropriately incorporate characteristics from film, graphic novels, and tattoo art and when combined with his often religious subject matter, they make Huante a wonderful candidate for a new rendition of Dante's Inferno. Through primarily bronze sculpture, Jose Ismael Fernandez, like Huante, takes on the human form and often religious and sometimes possibly mythical subject matter. In some works such as "Fallen," Fernandez aligns himself with the figural forms and movement of sculptors such as Bernini. In others such as "Jane" or "Struggle," he freely enlarges, elongates, and alters the human form to convey a spiritual or emotional strain that the body manifests.
Carlos Huante
Jose Ismael Fernandez
Fallen, 2008***
Gallery 1988:
Monster Art Rally: A Frightening Show of Plush and Custom Vinyl Creatures
Artists: 12PUNT3, 2CENTS, ADRIAN PINA, ANNA CHAMBERS, BEASTLIES, BRANDT PETERS, BUFF MONSTER, BYTEDUST, CAMERON TIEDE, CHET ZAR, CHOCOLATE LOG INDUSTRIES, CRUMP, CRYSTAL BEDFORD, DAN GOODSELL, DGPH, DOKTOR A, DR. BAO-NVC CREW, EL MAZ & LINA, BRITTON, EYEBONE, FORESTPRINTS, HEIDI KENNEY, JAKE HENZLER, JAMOUS, JAYSON THIESSEN, JEFF MCMILLAN, JELLIBAT, JEN RAREY, KANO, KATHIE OLIVAS, KOADZN, LANA CROOKS, LAURA GRANLUND, LEECIFER, LITTLE DEAR, LOST MONSTER, MAOMA, MONSTER FACTORY, MORNINGLORI, MOTOR BOT, MYCRYPTONAUTS, REBELWOOKIEE, SERENA KUHL, SEWING STARS, SPASMODICA, STEFF BOMB, SUICIDE KITTENS, TAPETENTIERE, TIM TSUI
For Monster Art Rally, Gallery 1988 owner, Katherine Cromwell, gathered together a long list of artists with whom she has worked in the past and asked each of them to create a set of monsters for this show. The result is a dense collection of one-of-a-kind plush and vinyl objects. Some parts of the collection move in their own creative direction while others work in a broad but shared gama-go/kogepan-style sensibility. The pieces are colorful, compact, and present a balance between a strong design sense and cuteness overload. The show is part elevation of the art and craft of inventive plush creations and part etsy-type showcase that has a clear awareness of its own irresistible charm.
Some Highlights: Leslie Levings
***
Steven Wolf Fine Arts:
Dustin Fosnot: Cyanide
Artist: Dustin Fosnot
In this show, Dustin Fosnot inventively experiments with materials that have a photographic quality: paintings created from a type of adhesive photo paper and mattresses treated to react to exposure. The glossy adhesive paper invites a tactile experience from its seemingly tacky surface on which Fosnot has “splattered” delicate dots of white along with other external elements such as dust, hair, and fox tails. Similarly inviting outside elements into the white gallery space are his “cyan” mattresses that were covered with a cyanide-based chemical solution, exposed and darkened in the sun, all except for the "photographed" portions of the mattress on which Fosnot himself lay his body during the exposure. The result is a collection of pieces that poignantly refer to the works' constructed nature and the equally ephemeral nature of bodily traces and memory.
Some Highlights: Dustin Fosnot
***
Articles and content copyright BTN Art Reviews
(Visual Culture Visits, http://viscultvis.blogspot.com/)
2008. All rights reserved.
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