NYAB Event - Boy Kong “SAMESUN”

Boy Kong “SAMESUN”

Gitler &

[Image: oy Kong "SAMESUN." (2015) acrylic, spray paint on panel, 36½ x 28 in.]

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Gitler &_____ present the latest solo exhibition from Boy Kong, entitled SAMESUN. In a departure from his recent animalistic portraits, composed with a varying stylistic mix of Graffiti, Ukiyo-e, and Victorian Grotesque, Kong presents here a collection of new still-lifes and portraits that are uncharacteristically reserved in both content and execution, all inspired by select 2015 museum and gallery exhibitions. Examples include Van Gogh’s Irises and Roses at the Metropolitan Museum, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s The Unknown Notebooks at the Brooklyn Museum, and Alice Neel’s Drawings and Watercolors 1927-1978 at David Zwirner, among several others.

For SAMESUN., Kong rediscovers his raw talents by channeling such predecessors; he hones his focus on the compositional building blocks of light and shadow, tone and form. The resulting paintings abide by a different set of laws than what Kong and those familiar with his body of work are accustomed to. This reserved approach is a paradox for Kong. A supremely gifted painter and draughtsman, he is also entirely self-taught. Such tutelage is prone to take weird and unorthodox turns, absorbing and processing, for instance, the formulas of Titian, the colors of Murakami, and the sculptural tribalism of AJ Fosik, perhaps all in one sitting.

Boy Kong as artist was born a hybrid, many times over in fact, thus making SAMESUN. not a return to form so much as a tribute to the masters who have inspired him in name only. As Kong remarked in a 2012 interview, “I long to perfect the craft that they have perfected centuries before.”

Boy Kong (b.1993, Orlando, FL) is a self-taught painter, muralist, sculptor, and collagist. Kong is the “Young Talent” invitee at this year’s Affordable Art Fair in New York. Gitler &_____ is located in Hamilton Heights, NYC. The gallery is dedicated to showcasing rising artists from around the world. For more info visit www.gitlerand.com.