Dark blue hue

The motion and frenetic activity...balanced by large, monochromatic forms....the injection of color and contrast add energy to this painting by Italian artist, Sandro Chia....Repetition of the figurative element, large and close to the viewer on the right side of the picture plane and smaller, off into space just left of the middle...

The small figure glowing and isolated, floating in the middle of a sea of marks, active and warm colors balanced by dark areas and shapes in blue...the contrast and scale variations exhibits visual movement and engages the viewer....the large table, blue vase and dark background on the right hand side of the picture plane.

Contrasting spaces

A defining of color and patterns...rectilinear structures and references that are eventually re-referenced...the repetition of the patterns the green cross-hatching in the wall, image on the wall and the floor...the large scale figure is the central image in this environment...Lego man riding on a naturalistic, to scale horse...

The works of Tomokazu Matsuyama, merge the decorative with the whimsical...the playful and the trendy....this mixed media sculptural installation utilizes many of the same kinds of ideas and imagery as in his two-dimensional works. Black and white add areas of contrast, in the Lego-like man and in the striped, flat panels...a nice contrast to the greens and tieing in nicely with the white walls...another device of extremes to carry the eye around the space.

Chance and purpose

Loose, open and atmospheric environments from Kevin Taylor...Animals and humans merged together in the narrative...these characters personify the human experience, the darker sides of our existence...Kevin sets up these scenarios in a provocative and challenging visual way...with the fox dropping in from the top of the picture plane...hovering over a mystical glowing ball...

Death has been controlled and shrouded with a red cape...the bear man has taken control...a horned skull...fallen friend...found acquaintance...lost stranger...the placement and characters come together in an nondescript scene...found together by chance or purpose?

I like squares!

Squares, squares and more squares...grid patterns of color and images...tight composition with several re-references and a balance between the long rectilinear image on the right and the square of child like drawings and notes on the left...areas of related color on the left with blue, red, white and yellow tie the two sides together...

This painting by Tad Lauritzen Wright looks at the contrast of random patterns of abstraction against representational imagery...I like the edges created by one drawing next to another, one color next to another and a series of lines next to an open space...these implied areas are set up in the grid…simple and childlike.

Wood cut party

The amazing things Mike Houston can do with wood cuts...the details and rhythms of the objects...defining intimate spaces with intense line and cut...the ideas and imagery are not traditional, they cover contemporary ideas, social identity, indulgence and characters...the black in the work move the eye around and act as a respite for all the visual activity...

The women's dress and heels in the lower left...the arms, legs and fingers acting like arrows to move you over to the lower right, black dress and then up the pants to the top of the beer bong (never thought that word would enter this blog!), across the hair of the man and women, down to the man's shirt and back again to the lower left...visual association creating cohesion and unity...

Beauty and the beasts

Long horizontal narratives, exploring ideas of man verses nature...these collaged images by Josh Dorman are subtle and layered...many of his works incorporate maps and contemporary collage materials...but the context is often ancient, aged and worn...setting up a juxtaposition between those elements we recognize and a time that feels foreign.

This uneasiness plays on the viewers emotions and sets up the imagery nicely....this piece explores the mass exodus of birds and animals from an every encroaching environment dominated by machines and man...scale is important in this work, extending the horizontal picture plane, pushing space back through tiny elements, gradually getting larger as they move forward into the space.

Pig Tattoo Taxidermy

Okay, these are some tough works to wrap your mind around...which is the main reason I decided to write about the work of Wim Delvoye, a Belgium artist...These were tattooed, live pigs that became art...the emotional relationship between a live animal and the owner...a decision to kill this animal for its skin or stuff the animal for its value...

Choosing to make art on an animal that is used as food, complicates for some, the idea of cruelty and making something beautiful but accomplishing this in a painful/cruel way...a unique concept and a challenging work, even for the most open of art connoisseurs...pushing the lines of acceptable forms of creation