David Thorpe "Peace Not Pacifism"
Casey Kaplan
This event has ended.
Thorpe’s installations are extraordinarily handcrafted realms that linger between futuristic and historical environments. His work reinterprets turn of the 20th century culture by capturing the utopian spirit in an entirely imagined atmosphere.
The exhibition is comprised of watercolors, sculptures, and large-scale ceramic tile screens. Much like the work of the skilled artisan of the Arts and Crafts Movement (c. 1860–1910), Thorpe’s pieces are ornately detailed and meticulously rendered. Honoring medieval recipes for paint and ceramic molds, each work is labor intensive and pragmatically applied with several layers of paint and glaze. Thorpe is motivated in particular by the work of William Morris and John Ruskin. Ruskin’s “The Nature of Gothic” describes his theories of the ideal artist as a “Naturalist,” a person who seeks the true beauty of nature by illustrating its entirety. The profound awe in nature is truthful, beautiful, and unequivocally sublime.
Media
Schedule
from October 28, 2010 to December 18, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-10-28 from 18:00 to 20:00