Michael Kalmbach

Night Fever Diptych

Michael Kalmbach

2008

Acrylic on Plastic Wrapped Over Felt and Poster Cut-outs

Two 36" x 18" panels

The Rockies

Michael Kalmbach

2008

Acrylic on Plastic Wrapped Over Felt

20" x 20"

Sensual Seduction + detail shot

Michael Kalmbach

2008

Acrylic on Plastic Wrapped Over Tie-dyed Faux Fur

50" x 50"









Built from the debased materials of plastic and craft felt, I see my paintings as quixotic meditations on the transformative power of material. I utilize repetition, variation, ritual performance, and improvisation as working devices that generate product and ideas.



The work Night Fever Diptych attempts to recontextualize Saturday Night Fever as a lesson in class division in the arts. How de-intellectualizing the body leads to false hierarchies and theories of exclusion. Born from a Coors Light commercial, The Rockies locates the contemporary sublime in plastic, it is simultaneously surface and abyss. Its purples pulled from the uniform of the thin-air-home-run hitting Colorado Rockies.

Sensual Seduction gets its title from a recent Snoop Dogg track-- in this work the dot strands direct the poured acrylic. The trails that are created begin to form a type of drawing, with this knowledge in my back pocket, I press on in the production of awesome.

The Urban Condition

The Urban Condition
Lauren Scott
44"x 48"
oil on canvas

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner
Lauren Scott
48"x 60"
oil on canvas

The imagery behind my paintings is a conglomeration of personal ideals, values, experiences and icons that hold certain meanings to me and on a variety of levels within societal contexts. The freedom of iconic combinations within the picture plane is arranged to confront the viewer in such a way that conjures more questions than answers. What exactly is going on here and where does this begin to fit together? These references take cues from color, mood, paint application and figural relations which enable me to push the envelope of narrative. There are many occurrences that society takes behavioral indications or perceptions from and through my mind's filter I am constantly transforming these avenues into complex imagery.

Although my paintings carry heavy forms, there remains a painterliness that allows the raw marks to show themselves to the viewer. These marks are proof of decisions in my development and carry a history while confirming the attentiveness to the process in the painting. I have a desire when I work to hold onto my experience through imagery and evident process- to divorce these would divert the dialogue.
There is validity in bringing out specific iconography or happenings that stimulate me to be shared. All this information fuels the world as I know it, the way I developed, and the way I continue to see things.

Diaries

Diaries

Teresa Mikulan

2008

pencil, marker, watercolor, paper, thread

9 books, approximately 5" x 6" each

Currently I find myself interested in making small books that catalog my daily life. I enjoy this method of making work because it provides the viewer with an intimate experience of another person's daily episodes. The book is a pleasurable form for me to work in that it is a handmade object that can be held and explored by others. I like the idea that when you are looking through an artist's book, you are holding a piece of art in your hands- something that we do not often get to do. I hope by genuinely revealing my experiences and emotions that others may relate and identify with the travails presented. 

Glimmer

Glimmer

Francine Fox

2008

Ink & watercolor on paper

11.5" x 14"

I am interested in the connection between controlling one’s physical appearance and perception of identity. My work specifically examines the relationship between philosophies that place emphasis on individualism, and those that emphasize society as a whole in which the individual plays a small part. Within my imagery I strive to convey states of unrest in which the depicted figures struggle to obtain an ever elusive clarity of identity. Through intricate rendering of the conjoined figures, their garments, and tattoos, I hope to mirror both the complexity of societies in which one establishes personal identity, and the complexity of identity itself.

Eiffel Tower, Brandt's Cormorant, Mt. McKinley

Eiffel Tower, Brandt's Cormorant, Mt. McKinley
Anthony Vega
2008
Acrylic on Canvas
50" by 50"


My primary interest in this work is visual experience. The intention is that painting can offer a unique insight into the experience of our visual culture and current relationship between objects, their meanings and our ability to see. This work explores these relationships through media connections of objects and the seemingly disparate, and unclear qualities these connections create. Our visual experience is cluttered and flattened by these connections. Where one object or meaning begins is unclear, our relationship to visual experience has an impact that at once loses the object and creates a new one. The simulation of images camouflages visual understanding.

Tommy's Gas and Grocery

Tommy's Gas and Grocery
James Zeske
2008
gauche, acrylic, gesso, ink on canvas
52"x 26"

My new work is an exploration of materials and techniques ranging from painting on canvas to wood burning on cheap wood. I'm interested in the overlapping of social status and find my work to be a reflection of American contemporary culture. The "store" paintings create a sense of space with the white terrain in which the viewer might reflect back on their lives or create some kind of story. These paintings are also a symbol for consuming things that we want/need and the possible self destruction of possessing things as status symbol. We seem to find a sense of security and/or acceptance in material possessions. Mothers plaque on the kitchen door reads, "we too often love things and use people when we should be loving people and using things". Maybe it all depends on who you know and what you own.