Evan Hecox “The Long Way”

Joshua Liner Gallery

[Image: Evan Hecox "Dark Canyon Flag" (2017) acrylic and gouache on collaged paper, 38 x 50 in.]

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Joshua Liner Gallery presents The Long Way, the Gallery’s fourth solo exhibition with Denver based artist Evan Hecox. The exhibition features fifteen new works on paper inspired by a recent road trip through the Southwestern region of the United States.

Taken from images captured throughout an extensive trip over the summer of 2016, Hecox’s body of work for The Long Way explores the desolate back roads and remote landscapes of southern Colorado and New Mexico. Desert landscapes, Taos Earthships, The Rio Grande Gorge, and lonesome church ruins have a strong presence in this new series of works on paper. Other works continue Hecox’s ongoing series of typographic works, as well as abstract flags inspired by the geography of the Southwest. In contrast to previous series of work from Hecox, The Long Way introduces a deeper, reductive approach to illustration with line work distilled into its essential forms, capturing subtle suggestions and projecting hints, of this arid, remote landscape.

Incorporating his sense of spacial geometry, Hecox reduces the surrounding landscape into his signature interpretations. A setting sun may be represented by a perfect golden semi-circle, while desert plants are silhouetted in opaque gouache. It is this process of breaking down the landscape into distinct shapes, the pieces to a visual puzzle create a deeply personal reflection of his surroundings. The viewer is witness to the artist’s memories and deconstruction of the environment, finding and rethinking the landscape into pure shapes and forms. The artist explains, “Ultimately I’m drawing a picture of something, but I’m also making an abstract piece. I’ve always looked for things that have a geometric simplicity, and start adding in my own imagined elements.”

Other works reimagine this parched scenery through an entirely abstract lens. Hecox created a series of flags representative of the regions, as well as typographic works inspired by his love of angular geometric shapes, as seen in Santa Rosa De Lima and El Santuario de Chimayo. Employing earthy tones of umber, lichen greens and rust, the color combinations of these works act as swatches of the landscape, and stand as quiet reflections of this natural, largely untouched scenery. Hecox explains, “I like the idea of a flag being a symbol of something, and taking that idea of having the flag represent an aspect of the natural landscape.” Despite the two distinct approaches occurring in this new series of work, through reductive illustrations and abstraction, this body of work in its entirety is Hecox’s memento of a region that continuously inspires the artist.

Born in 1970, Evan Hecox currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Selected solo exhibitions include Northern, Andenken Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2016); Far, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY (2015); Terrain, Andenken Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2015); Dark Island, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY (2012); Borough Lane, Stolen Space, London, (2011); The Last Thousand Years, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY (2009); Full Deck: A Short History of Skate Art, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA (2009); Los Calles, 4 Walls Fine Art, Austin, TX (2007); and The Art of Evan Hecox, Rocket Gallery, Tokyo (2003). Group exhibitions include Direction/Instruction, Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2016); Your Favorite Artist’s Favorite Artist, Joshua liner Gallery, New York, NY (2014); Wreck the Walls, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles (2010); Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2007); and Colorado Biennial, Aspen Art Museum (2006).