Joe Vaux & Gilbert Oh "Subliminal Communications"
Eastern District
This event has ended.
Ad Hoc Art & Eastern District present an exhibition of new works by Joe Vaux and Gilbert Oh. With one artist hailing from each coast, this exhibition is sure to delight your senses, as it is both heady and playful. Vaux has been an inspiration to Oh as well as us and it is a treat to have them both under the same roof. We hope you take the opportunity to peruse the works of these stunningly warm and creative artists.
For his latest creative burst and first show in New York City entitled “The Quest for Peace”, Vaux says this about his work: “In a world where the clouds of evil and corruption seem endless it’s hard to find shelter. When the enemies of your life are too big and faceless to fight how do you battle? Well I don’t. I paint pictures. In this body of work, I focus on the dangers of life and living in our time. Listening to the world news, buying a home, paying taxes, fear of failure and all the other stresses of life get makeovers in my paintings. The works are my therapy. I hope you enjoy.” Being a product of two artists, Vaux was always surrounded by an abundance of art materials and inspiration. Whether working with pencil, paint, Styrofoam or Lego he found ways to make his fantasy worlds a bit more real.
After receiving a B.F.A. in illustration at Syracuse University in 1994, he moved to California and began working in the animation industry. He refers to these years as graduate school, continuing to learn from some of the animation world's top artistic talent. It was during this time that he refined his voice as a painter. Although his influences and abilities have grown, his imagery seems to come out of an adolescent's sensibility. Strange environments and absurd characters are the players in a demented adaptation of his life story. Within the madness he hopes the viewer will find the comedy that is our existence.
About his own recent creations, Oh comments, “My previous work was based heavily in realism, whereas now it is heavily based in the fantastic and is much more surreal and cartoony. This is a full circle movement for me, since before my realism period of painting I was fantasy-centric. Cartooning has been my passion since I was a child and there is something in the nature of cartoons that real life cannot duplicate. This “something” is what makes my heart sing and the paint flow from my brush. The difference between painting realism and cartoons is the difference between being a bird safely stuck in a cage and a bird flying free. Freedom means everything to me, taking me beyond the illusion of safety to keep my creative engine purring.” Thus, while he enjoys the perks of painting realistically, the fantastical landscape is where he finds his greatest enjoyment, inspiration and refuge.
www.adhocart.org // www.joevaux.com // http://gilbertoh1.blogspot.com/
Media
Schedule
from November 13, 2009 to December 06, 2009