James Rieck "Mead Hall"
Lyons Wier Gallery
This event has ended.
Inspired by the heroic epic poem Beowulf, and J.R.R. Tolkien's 1936 lecture on this subject, The Monsters and the Critics, Rieck's new show engages not only with medieval themes of violence and romantic love, but also with the age-old division between literature and the visual arts.
Using visual tropes derived from master works, World of Warcraft, and costume advertisements, Rieck deftly composes pieces that are skillful, narrative, and palpably sexy. All paintings included in this series are produced in Grisaille - gray tones used as the under-painting for classical works, sometimes referred to as "'dead coloring"'. Rieck's large-scale painting "Wolf" (2010), contains rough peaks of dried white paint that give viewers the trompe l'oeil sensation of soft, dense fur. The spread wolf skin on the hard wooden floor, with its dead black eyes staring up at us, is at once reminiscent of the violence this animal endured, and foreshadowing of the sensual use to which this
Media
Schedule
from April 23, 2010 to May 21, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-04-23 from 18:00 to 21:00