October 22 - November 26, 2016
Reception: October 22, 2016 5-7PM
Gallery Talk: November 5, 2016 11AM
After the faceted dimensions of Analytical Cubism, the work of Picasso and Braque evolved into the collage-like constructions of Synthetic Cubism. In his first solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery entitled, Bless the Mess, Mark Posey similarly picks up the pieces of life scattered about him and arranges his droll interpretations of them onto awkward, wobbly tables that appear to be lifted from the Cubist realm of cockeyed perspective. Unlike the flat fragments of Cubist still lifes however, Posey’s bottles, baseballs and bricks are oozily conjured elements that are stuck on the surface like an egg sunny-side up in a frying pan. Painterly rugs and squat tables are lifted up, parallel to the picture plane and studded with subtly dimensional, almost sculptural incarnations of animated beer cans and paint brushes that appear to have a life of their own, and even the tables have legs that want to rhumba. In Posey’s recent work, cut-out, painted picnic blankets and tablecloths tousle and tuck on the wall, dotted with bananas and lobsters in a playful embrace of asymmetry, imperfection and as Posey says, “the flaws that give us character and identity.”
Mark Swope’s photographs are grounded in the aesthetic and theoretical approach of the New Topographic photographers, such as Henry Wessel Jr., Joe Deal and especially, Robert Adams. SFMOMA most succinctly described the movement as “unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance.” Remarking on his new exhibition, Between, Swope states, “I always look for what is usually passed over. The subjects may seem unremarkable, but that is why I am attracted to them. They will always be in-between.” In fact, the title suggests not only the mundaneness of being between things that are more “significant,” but also a compounded, sandwiched quality, as if Swope’s gates, trailers and rooflines are mortared together in an amalgamated mass like the bottles and cubes of a Morandi still life.
On view in the gallery office:
