Edward Thorp Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition comprising paintings, sculptures and drawings. Fervor places a high value on immediacy and self-expression through the material. The majority of the artists will be making their debut appearances with the gallery.

The works selected in Fervor all share a distinctive humor and outlook underpinned with poetic absurdities. Beyond the evocative imagery, the artists in this show raise enduring questions concerning individual and universal realities.

An active surface of visionary tales makes up Trudy Benson’s paintings. Monsters and oversized heads in all their fleshy immediacy emerge from the thick impasto paint application. The subject matter fluctuates between the grotesque and the innocent, simultaneously assaulting and soothing our sensibilities.

Located somewhere between representation and abstraction, Sebastian Dacey’s vigorous compositions defy easy interpretation. Expressionistic forms twist, stretch, and collide, forming hybrids of setting and construct. The paintings’ unruly and uninhibited performance belies the clarity of intent and purpose behind these works.

In Neil Farber’s paintings, characters appear in situations that test the boundaries of the commonplace and the paranormal. At first sight, the figures may appear trusting and naive, but a gruesome dark humor lurks under the rich and diverse surface where delicate drawing gives way to smears and blobs of paint that enhance the sense of senselessness at the heart of his works.

Mike Hein’s sculptures transcend easy historical interpretation. On first encounter, they can be read as cool, almost minimal constructs but closer inspection reveals the presence of rogue elements that engender a surprisingly emotive interaction. Seriousness gives way to playfulness as humorous, unexpected objects corrupt the conceptual formalism.

Working with pencil, paint and collage, Simone Shubuck creates a broad range of spontaneous and obsessive images, some derived from popular culture, others from personal notations. Disparate thoughts accumulate into an elaborate labyrinth of gesture and inscription, culminating into visionary, muti-layered compositions. A maze of possible meanings abound beyond the decorative, forcing a mysterious narrative of the present.