“Rites of Spring” Exhibition
Van Der Plas Gallery
[Image: Debra Drexler "Cool Blue" oil on canvas 72 x 96 in.]
This event has ended.
Van Der Plas Gallery presents the inauguration of its new downstairs Project Space with an exhibition of paintings by Ford Crull, Peggy Cyphers, Debra Drexler and Johan Wahlstrom, “Rites of Spring”. Like Stravinky’s infamous similarly named musical composition, the paintings explore harmony and dissonance, transporting the viewer into an abstract experience of synesthesia where you can almost
taste, hear and feel color and form. From the complex delicacy of Cyphers, to the primal urgency of Wahlstrom ,all artists are deeply rooted in process. The works recall the origins of painting itself such as the Paleolithic roots of Crull’s work, or the complex color interactions of Drexler. The works engage in timeless archetypes in unique and contemporary ways. Each artist brings us into a deeper understanding of the sublime through a transcendent experience of paint.
Ford Crull continues to explore the expressive power of personal and cultural symbols in a series of densely painted and vividly colored compositions “Ambiguity of the image forces the viewer into a more intensive study of the work, so that the deeper layers of reality are unveiled…This is the real pleasure of my painting: to present a tableau of associations, an unceasing unfolding of meanings, to offer a glimpse of a more universal state of consciousness, unbound by the limitations of time and convention.”. Ford Crull was raised in Seattle, where he graduated from the University of Washington. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery, Dayton Art Institute, and the Brooklyn Museum. His paintings were included in the important 1989 Moscow exhibition, “Painting After the Death of Painting,” curated by Donald Kuspit. Recent exhibitions have included shows in Shanghai, London, Milan, and Seattle.
Peggy Cyphers grew up in Baltimore and Chesapeake Beach, Maryland and has been inspired by the spectacular Miocene fossil deposits, Calvert Cliffs and aquatic life of the Bay since childhood. Cyphers’ 30 solo and 180 group exhibitions have been reviewed in New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Brooklyn Rail, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, etc. Grants include National Endowment for the Arts, Peter S. Reed Foundation, Elizabeth Foundation, National Studio Award PS.1, Pratt Institute. Residency awards include Yaddo, Art Omi, Tong Xian Art Beijing, Santa Fe Art Institute, ISCP, Triangle & Clocktower/P.S.1. Cyphers’ inventive and combinatory
approaches to paint, silkscreen and sand have develop into pictures that explore the “politics of progress” as it impacts on cultural evolution and the natural world. Spatial compositions defy gravity and orientation and envision transcendent spaces of expansive consciousness while glorifying the naturalist’s direct encounter with water, sky, earth, and all creatures.
Debra Drexler translates the inner experience into outer form through a vigorous athletic painterly process. Drexler’s large-scale canvases are imbued with light and color recalling the Hawaiian landscape. Drexler maintains studios in both New York and Oahu, and her work is informed by her unique bi-coastal experience. Drexler has had 28 solo and over 100 group exhibits at galleries and museums in New York, Hawai’i, Australia, Berlin and across the states including Honolulu Museum, Vanderbilt University and Maui Arts and Cultural Center. Recent New York solo exhibits include: White Box’s Annex, Pool Art Fair, Chelsea Hotel Blue Mountain Gallery, HP Garcia Gallery and Java
Studios Gallery. In addition, Drexler has exhibited in group shows in New York including The Drawing Center, Denise Bibro Gallery, Exit Art, Art Finance Partners, and Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, and Sideshow Gallery. Reviews include Artweek, New York Arts Magazine, and New Art Examiner. Debra Drexler is a Professor of Painting at the University of Hawai’i.
Born in 1959 in Stockholm, Sweden, Johan Wahlstrom is a fifth-generation artist. Though art was in his blood, his first creative direction was rock and roll, where he had a successful and long career as a keyboardist and singer, touring with Ian Hunter, Graham Parker, Mick Ronson and many Scandinavian artists. After 20 years, the rock and roll life caught up with him. Wahlstrom moved to a small village in France where he did nothing but paint for seven years, part of that time under the tutelage of Swedish artist, Lennart Nystrom. Wahlstrom’s dark narrative paintings of heads and torsos in acrylic and ink are inspired by cryptic, often ironic social critiques that he collects on
scraps of paper in his studio in Malaga, Spain, where he now lives. Wahlstrom’s graphic, neoexpressionist style is inspired by Jean DuBuffet, Paul Klee and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Since 1999, Wahlstrom’s work has been displayed in galleries across Europe and the US, and was a highlighted artist at May 2013 Fridge Art Fair. His work has been the subject of several books.
Media
Schedule
from March 07, 2015 to March 28, 2015
Opening Reception on 2015-03-07 from 15:00 to 18:00