Invisible NYC is proud to host, Once in Awhile, a two-person exhibit by artists Duane Burton and Leif Parsons. Duane Burton, a graduate of SVA in New York City, is the founder of Le Castlevania, an underground gallery and performance space with satellite happenings. His own art has been included in numerous group shows as well as solo exhibits. Leif Parsons was educated in Canada and New York, with degrees in both Philosophy and Design. He currently works as an illustrator whose work has been shown in galleries in New York and Los Angeles.

For the exhibit, Once in Awhile, both men work primarily with mixed media on paper, creating whimsical and visually pleasing poetic imagery – sometimes recognizable, other times free form lines and space create familiar shapes and forms. While similar in their approach, each has unique execution and end result.

Duane Burton’s work exploits the nature of paper, allowing its texture, lightness, and beauty to inform the development of his work. His paintings recall fantastical illustrations from a twisted children’s book. In one painting, ””I Can’t Sleep”, loosely rendered turquoise stained horses gallop among the creases of aged paper, moving quickly and eerily but hovering in a dreamlike abyss. Mr. Burton says that he subscribes to the concept that “fine details make a mess of philosophy when it comes to art making…I really, really, really enjoy finding, exploring, and playing in little perfect mechanical mistakes. Attempting to create music on a flat surface is my theme. All and all I want make work that hopefully will make the viewer laugh an or smile then scratch their head walk away for a bit and then later on cry…just a little”.

Leif Parson’s free flowing paintings of line and colo r successfully recall the subconscious (Automatic) drawings ! of the S urrealists. His use of minimal color, and tumbling, interconnected scupltural imagery is the perfect compliment to Mr. Burton’s dream-like, pastel minimal paintings. Mr. Parsons states ” I am excited about little stories, about the possibility of telling a story that I did not know I knew…the stories that arrive from spontaneity of action and idea. I am experimenting with the notion that if one is interested, concentrated, and unafraid then it is hard to make a bad mark.” Mr. Parson’s more free-form work with its pop-art-like imagery represents his fascination with drawing sculpture, form, and systems. In his paintings, Mr. Parsons refers to sculpture as it might be imagined both by himself and by the viewer rather than as a diagram for a work intended for construction. He states, “there is something nice about a sculpture that is suggested and imagined but never realized”.