Ellen C. Caldwell | ECLAIRE.me

Gluibizzi’s style is really unique too. He pairs like groups together: friends, pornographic scenes, swinger couples, or proud stoner owners with their bongs. His light watercolor pastels feel more playful than pornographic even when poses are super-suggestive and provocative. And although his figures are missing any kind of intricate facial details that might render them more personality and uniqueness, all of his works still feel warm and intimate. Perhaps there is something in their universality that is appealing and more friendly than Google searches or Tumblr streams of stranger after stranger.

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.”

Ghostpatrol (insty: @ghostpatrol) is known for his listless and fantastical line drawings, murals, and deceivingly faux-simplistic style that portray subjects which are anything but simple. Starting as a street artist in Melbourne, a city that takes pride in and even encourages this art form much more so than in the States, he grew his artistic passion into a multi-faceted career with projects ranging from murals, to prints, to animation, to tattoo commissions and so on. He imbues his humble drawings with a deeper aura which gives the sense of a heavy narrative and storyline that inspire me to think more deeply and feel more imaginatively. Two of his upcoming longer-term projects include animating a dream sequence for a feature film and painting a second wind turbine.

Lucas Grogan (insty: @xlucasgrogan) embroiders, sews, draws, and paints to create monochromatic works that call to mind Greek vessel and vase design elements (partially because of his most signature blue and white combinations, but also because of his Greek-like chastising, hovering, god-like figures). These schematics are immediately contrasted by Grogan’s pithy and cheeky textual slogans. Simply put, his work is flawlessly funny. I’d often scroll through his work with a quiet sly grin, cheeky glimmer in my eye, and/or an absurdly loud chuckle. Grogan’s upcoming years are packed with solo shows: in July 2014, he will have his first solo show at Martin Browne Contemporary in Sydney, followed by another at Hugo Michell Gallery in Adelaide in November. And in 2015, he has a solo at Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong.