Michael Reafsnyder "We Ate the House"
Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe
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AMERINGER | McENERY | YOHE presents "We Ate the House," a solo exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Michael Reafsnyder.
Michael Reafsnyder's churning surfaces cajole his viewers' imaginations into action. Engaging frivolity, sensuousness, and excess, the paintings and sculptures of "We Ate the House" immediately seize your attention, then slow you down to savor every exquisite, juicy, delicious detail.
At first glance, each painting seems to carry the presence of five or six paintings that have crashed together, yet happy accidents and colorific harmonies occur too frequently to be random. Reafsnyder paints quickly - each painting is constructed in a single sitting - but like a gleeful, carnivalesque Jackson Pollock, Reafsnyder builds sophisticated compositions that catch, dive, and roll viewers along a swirling, multi-layered rainbow punctuated with daubs, dots, and his characteristic smiley faces.
The sculptures continue the artist's engagement with down-and-dirty pleasure and cheerful exuberance. With clay, engobe, and glaze, he meticuously creates creatures whose origins seem otherworldly, yet possess a living, emotional presence too concrete and muscular to be called whimsical.
Regarding his work, Reafsnyder states: "The liquidity of paint and clay allow for 'Indiana Jones'-type adventures, a sort of immediate experience in which every turn or twist presents a new pleasure and a new concern. The trick is to make sure that the works do not end up solely as a record of those decisions, but take on a new life."
Michael Reafsnyder (b. 1969, California) received an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, in 1996. He has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His work may be found in numerous public and private collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Laguna Art Museum, CA; Las Vegas Art Museum, NV; Columbus Museum of Art, OH; and the Portland Art Museum, OR.
Reafsnyder lives and works in Southern California.
[Image: Michael Reafsnyder "Paint Eater" (2012) Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 in.]
Media
Schedule
from March 21, 2013 to April 20, 2013
Opening Reception on 2013-03-21 from 18:00 to 20:00