Kevin Ford, Douglas Goldberg, and Jonathan Laib

The Allen Gallery is pleased to present Waiting for the Moon to Rise works by Kevin Ford, Douglas Goldberg, and Jonathan Laib.

The phrase Waiting for the Moon to Rise is a poetic umbrella meant to underscore the melancholic nature of the exhibited works without glossing over the unique and highly individual aesthetics and working methods employed by each artist. Indeed, when viewed as a collaborative installation it is through comparison and contrast that the conceptual intentions and execution of each individual work becomes illuminated. Like many artists who have come before and many who will follow, these artists produce their artistic output primarily in the evening hours and therefore spend their days literally waiting for the moon to rise.

Kevin Ford received his BFA in Painting from Boston University. He went on to receive his MFA Painting and Printmaking from Yale University.

Please see the following artist statement regarding this exhibition ”: I take my materials from the hobby shops and sporting goods stores of my native suburban Connecticut, and my methods from the crafting housewives and harmlessly delinquent preadolescents I grew up with. I glue gun, shoot, and burn to create highly formal, monochrome objects that narrowly avoid relegating Art to the realm of craft. BB guns and crafting materials are stripped of their intended function as outlets for neutered violence and directed creativity. These are objects nostalgic for a suburban America that may or may not have existed.”

A Brooklyn-based sculptor, Douglas received his Bachelor of Art from Messiah College in Grantham, PA and his Masters of Fine Art from the Mount Royal School at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD.

Using imagery extracted from historical monuments and traditional sculpture, his works symbolize the obstacles to enlightenment illustrated in the Buddhist mantra “Om Mani Pad Me Hum.” By enunciating each of the six syllables of the mantra, Buddhists believe you neutralize a corresponding negative emotion’s dominance over your actions, thus releasing yourself from ego. In a medium historically used to glorify and immortalize heroic acts, his intimate stone works function in the reverse. Instead of heralding a glorious victory or celebrating a renowned beauty, these works are meditations on the purgation of harmful emotions. Through shifts in scale and by isolating key moments from the general narrative, some of the original forms are retained but they speak to a different truth; they illustrate a flawed humanity that we all recognize.

Jonathan Laib was born in Denver and received his BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Of his work, Laib says, “my paintings pay homage to the fetishized plush-and-gloss aesthetics of pre-fabricated commercial products. I intentionally reproduce the look and feel of molded plastic- albeit on the surface. Underpinning these works are personal allegories and a rigorous painting process that allows each work to speak in its own language of form and color. Admittedly home-spun and crafty, the paintings never quite live up to the heavily designed products they desire to be. However, they are sincere and satisfy my nostalgia for the past- a past where the future was now and plastic was the medium of perfection and promise, my sentry into a world of pure imagination.”