Portland, Oregon-based artist Eric Wert turns the traditional genre of still life on its axis with his colorful and dynamic compositions. Yet, there is still a hint of the past in his pieces, as he borrows concepts and aesthetics from throughout art history in subtle ways. His paintings depict time-honored subjects— flowers, fruits, birds and vases—but with items such as avocados and irises they are clearly of this modern world. His backdrops are also referential, with them being his own designs that come from hours studying archives of vintage textiles or those at a fabric store.
“I think that’s one of the things that’s so beautiful about still life painting,” Wert says. “It really is one of the oldest art forms. Still life paintings were on the walls of Pompeii that are of what I’m doing now—flowers in vases and fruits on the table. I love the fact that we can look at something we can relate to in our contemporary life and it connects us to something people have been experiencing throughout history.” Wert adds that he often borrows ideas and concepts from the past, for instance, “[When I was] very concerned with the light in the painting, I looked at historical egg tempera paintings and traditional paintings and thought about how color was layered to create a luminous effect.” And today, when he thinks more about composition and construction, Wert’s looking at the Renaissance and Dutch works because those artists’ pieces kept the eyes moving through the scene.
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Denne historien er fra May 2020-utgaven av American Art Collector.
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Guardians of the Temple – Simon Dinnerstein reflects on The Fulbright Triptych 50 years later.
The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University exhibits Simon Dinnerstein's The Fulbright Triptych haunts the visual lexicon of 20th century American representational art. Fifty years have passed since Dinnerstein completed the painting in 1974.
A City Perspective
Leslie Gaduzo has always been interIested in art. Since childhood, he has been drawing constantly, from single point perspective drawings at age 10 to complex architectural drawings.
Living Legacy
The Butler Institue hosts Allied Artists of America's 110th Annual Juried Exhibition.
Elegant yet Approachable
The second edition of the RTIA Show presents even more art to explore and expanded special programming.
Figuratively Speaking
New York has always been an epicenter of artists on the edge of excellence, pushing the envelope and finding their voices.
JAMES AYERS: The Importance of Play
Like many artists, James Ayers' work took a turn during the Covid-19 pandemic. Seeing the enjoyment his kids took from playing with paint in his studio and exploring their creativity inspired him.
GINA MINICHINO: Playing with Food
Gina Minichino started her journey in visual arts because of Charles Schulz. \"He was my earliest influence for drawing and the reason I wanted to be a cartoonist,\" she says.
Island Light
The Cuttyhunk Island Artists' Residency is held in a sprawling, 100-year-old house on an island off the southern coast of Massachusetts.
Solitary Forms
Hogan Brown has been working with Arcadia Contemporary for two and half years and is excited to be featured in his first solo show at the gallery. He doesn't take for granted the many talented figurative painters Arcadia represents and is thrilled to be among them.
Living the Dream
Counterintuitively, David Gluck was a painter before taking up tattooing little more than a decade ago. While skin is a completely different substrate and ink a far cry from oil paint, the skills must be transferrable to some degree because there is a wait-time of nine months to get an appointment with him.
