Ellen C. Caldwell | ECLAIRE.me

Painters and paint-lovers should flock to Evan Nesbit’s (NAP #99) current show /ˈkaɪˑæzəm/. Entering Roberts & Tilton, visitors are met by a group of large and brightly colored burlap canvases. The combination of acrylic paints and dye on brown burlap and of Nesbit’s painting on the opposite side of the burlap than the one facing outward has a contradictory effect on the colors: they are muted bolds and conversely, they are bright pastels.

Ben Weiner’s (NAP #56, 68, 80, 98) solo show “MaximumStrengthAgeDefy” at Mark Moore Gallery is eye candy for the soul and soulful drugs for your eyes. The gallery space greets you with bright and tasty looking colors, alluring and welcoming you in.

Brian Porray’s (NAP #84 & 2010 MFA Annual) second solo exhibition at Western Project is quite simply a must see and must feel. He fills the large, open gallery space with his signature bright and bold explosions of color, movement, and energy. In his last show, he focused on capturing the essence of his hometown Vegas and the complex power of the Luxor Hotel, and in this show, he moves to something else just as unsettling and unnerving as sin city can be to some – the ever-changing and impermanent night sky and the sci fi terrors and wonder it can bring to us mortals.

Something about Paige Jiyoung Moon’s (NAP #109) paintings stays with you. They are colorful, inviting, and familiar – and in them Moon captures her everyday experiences and environments in a way that is playful and realistic.

Jon Reed (NAP #109) paints objects – very ornate objects to be specific. His paintings are bright, bold, and full of rich contrasts in their depictions of opulent material goods found at two of the most famous collectors’-homes-turned-museums in California: The Getty Villa and Hearst Castle.

In Brown’s own words, “this painting, Gloaming, is part of the ongoing Ice House series. The title comes from the pinkish colouration of the snow. It occurs from the light of the sunset reflecting on the snow. This acts as an additional symbolic element. The end of the day being poetically related to death. The snow is a seasonal metaphor for death…the paint is handled to create a state of transience. Basically, the work is a naturalistic vanitas.”

I have always been a sucker for any kind of text in paintings and print…probably something to do with my love for both writing and art. But your paintings really hit home with me.
Last week, I heard Nirvana’s “All Apologies” play and I thought of your painting “Middle Age Introspection” immediately. I think this work is a prime example of how you capture really serious and heavy reflections playfully in manner and with aesthetic.

In Campgana’s own words, Plumule “is made largely from wood I gathered in the places where I have lived the past year. Mostly I used beautifully weathered wood that was collected from decaying outbuildings in rural Wisconsin. The outbuildings had been built decades ago for storing hay, grains, tools, and animals. These structures have a different way of breathing and translating light then the architectural structures we generally live in.”

Colorful and emotionally charged, Tomasi and his paintings are emotive and full of life. His abstracted faces and bodies cover a range of emotions, both in their inspirations and in the reactions they draw out from viewers. Tomasi has lived all over the world, being born in Sweden, studying in Italy, and then moving to Bali where he now lives and works. While painting there, he was deeply inspired by the island affected by its history in a really unique way.