The ArtCat calendar is closed as of December 31, 2012. Please visit Filterizer for art recommendations.


ARTCAT



Ben Durham and Storm Tharp

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery
526 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, 212-243-3335
Chelsea
October 24 - November 15, 2008
Reception: Friday, October 24, 6 - 8 PM
Web Site


Using the portrait’s ability to be both documentary and able to convey personality with unvarnished realism and piercing psychological insight, Durham and Tharp explore complex social and cultural issues through their depictions of the human face. Though their compositional techniques vary, both artists set their characters in neutral environments, with unabashed and direct gazes as a means to construct immediate and poignant narratives.

Literally writing the stories of his character’s lives across the page, Durham’s portraits are entirely composed from hand-written text. Based on mug-shot images of childhood friends, classmates, and co-workers, soft words create the contours and wrinkles that make up each face. Just as their lives have been marked by crime, addiction, and violence, Durham marks their faces so that they carry the weight of their lives on their shoulders.

Bleeding gouache, ink, and colored pencil across paper, Tharp vividly pulls imaginary characters out of his inky portraits. Almost like controlled Rorschach ink blots, these delicate messes of color brim with the visual evidence of their own emotions. At once gorgeous and grotesque, when Tharp’s precision meets these swells of color, wan beauty and an earnest awkwardness is hauntingly conveyed.

Storm Tharp lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Running concurrently with this show, the artist’s ARM & ARM will be on display at PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, and will include large-scale works on paper, video and installation. Other recent solo exhibitions include Arrangement in Flesh Color and Black, galerie bertrand & gruner, Geneva, Switzerland, and we appeal to heaven, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR. Tharp has also exhibited at the Portland Art Museum and the Belleview Art Museum, Belleview, WA and has work in several public collections.

Ben Durham lives and works in Midway, KY. He received a B.F.A. in Painting at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently he shown at Marc Selwyn Fine Art in Los Angeles, and has been featured online by White Columns and the Drawing Center.

www.flickr.com
Have photos of this show? Tag them with artcal-8229 to see them here.