McCaig Welles Gallery is pleased to present Jammer Slammer: The Evalation, a solo exhibition of paintings by R. Nicholas Kuszyk. The exhibition is a continuum of Kuszyk’s robot paintings that explores the evolution of visual media, the environment, rituals, and the human condition. New paintings along with some works spanning nearly ten years, will be on view.

Hyper colorful with an overtly complex mode, R. Nicholas Kuszyk’s works combine multiple elements that relate and inform and react to each other creating a symbiosis that can range from harmonious to chaotic. While the smaller paintings work as snapshots of everyday thoughts and emotions, the larger paintings take on a much more intricate commentary.

Kuszyk’s casts the robots as personifications of the different stages of life, which are juxtaposed with the effects each stage has on the surrounding environment. Kuszyk explains, “They’re formally organized into a kind of ritualistic arrangement that illustrates the intentions of the processes’ relational, spiritual, literal, and material connectedness.” As much as Kuszyk explores the aesthetics of the futuristic landscapes of the robot world, his exhibition also focuses on “ritualscapes”.

By creating formal rituals within his paintings, Kuszyk bestows human qualities upon the non-human robots allowing the audience not only to connect with a world that appears far removed from their own, but also realize the striking similarities between us and the mechanized creatures. Like our own reality, the Jammer Slammer world must deal with social responsibility, spiritual, political, and environmental issues, all of which seem to becoming increasingly magnified in culture obsessed with high definition and over stimulation.

A limited-edition of 50 signed and numbered silkscreen prints of Kuszyk’s Ritualscape # 3 painting, printed by Burlesque Designs, will be available at the opening. The print will feature over 25 different colors.

In August, R. Nicholas Kuszyk has a children’s book being published by Penguin Group, Inc. called R Robot Saves Lunch.