Sam Dargan

"The Celestial Abduction of Henri de Rochefort at the Behest of the Third Republic, 20th March 1874"  Oil on canvas  130x110cm  2012

"The Sea Won't Save You, Vidkun Quisling (Wrong Place, Wrong Time #2)"  oil on canvas  50x30cm  2012

 

"Christ’s Entry Into Paris, 18th March 1871: A Diversionary Tactic"  Oil on Canvas  2011-12

"Rue Charles Peguy, Road to Mulhouse: 18th October 1977"  Oil on Canvas   130x150cm  2012

"Cold War Bolt Hole (at Home with Dean Read)"  oil on canvas  30x24cm  2011

from "A Bad Year for People"  2007

Sam Dargan is another "successful" artist but new to me and so I'm posting his work here, because.. well damn it... I like it. I have to admit that looking back over his earlier work I was slightly put off by the overwhelming  jaded cynicism of it all. That's not really on display here and you'll have to do the googling for yourself to see what I mean. But there are remnants of it in his long obtuse historical referential titles. Those too put me off at first but actually they're rather fascinating, once you dig into them a little bit. For example "Rue Charles Peguy, Road to Mulhouse: 18th October 1977" is a reference to the assassination of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, a former SS officer by the Red Army Faction, aka the Baader-Meinhof gang. His body was left in the trunk of a car by the side of the titular road. That strip of pavement in the foreground becomes so much more significant. But the images themselves are only loosely tied to the narrative titles. The actual images have their own historical reference points, most especially the romantic landscapes of artists like Caspar David Friedrich (it seems that lately I'm finding a lot of artists harking back to the great Friedrich, whom I recall my art history teacher poo-pooing a bit as mere sentimentalism significant only in its historical context. I love how that stuff turns around).

Here's a link to a better review than mine from the Guardian. And here's a couple links where you can look through some more of the artist's work:
art.sy/artist/sam-dargan
www.rokebygallery.com/artists/sam-dargan

Nancy Loughlin 2

"Discord"  2011  oil on wood panel  55" x 40"

"Homestead"  2010  oil on wood panel  52" x 36"

"Playgrounds"  2011  oil on wood panel  42" x 36"

"The Go-Round"  2011   oil on pressed wood  30" x 36"

"The Lodge"  oil on wood panel  60" x 47.5"

I am more than a little bummed. Nancy Loughlin currently has a show up in Seattle at Linda Hodges Gallery. Just three hours away for me. And I had to head over that way to pick up some of my own work. But the only possible day I could go was on a Sunday and her gallery is not open on a Sunday. Why not? Why? I don't often get to see the work I post here in person. Seeing art first hand always makes an enormous difference. But sometimes the difference is greater than others. Ms. Loughlin's art seems of that sort. Her work is often large and always complex, subtle and delicately nuanced. Nonetheless I'm enthralled by even these small digital reproductions. Figures and creatures and all manner of imagery fade in and out of her paintings occupying scenes and symbols of domesticity and haunted by wildness and chaos.  She's exploring the hidden dimensions of our ordinary lives which create the illusions of order, and thinking about the ways in which we try to pretend that nature is out there, when all the time is is right here with us, and being affected by everything we do.
You can see loads of work on her website: www.nancyloughlin.com

(The Show close this Saturday on the 26th so if you happen to be in Seattle, go see it this week!)

Chris Mars - update

Well, Halloween is coming up. So it's a perfect time to do an update on Chris Mars who continues to explore the horrific and the horrified. If you missed my previous posts (Jan. 2010 and  July 2009) and are unfamiliar with his work, the one biographical detail that you need to know is that much of the horror in his imagery stems from witnessing his older bother's struggle with schizophrenia. What you don't really need to know, but is interesting for music fans, is that this is the same Chris Mars who was the drummer for the Replacements and who's recorded several successful solo albums as well.

These days he concentrates almost exclusively on the art. The art is about monsters. But monsters may not be as easily defined as you think. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that his art is about the other, the outsider, the ones who are truly different. Society does not abide the other. The other is a target, an outcast and unclean. I'll leave it to you to guess where Chris Mars' sympathies lie.

If you like what you see he has quite  few events coming up in: Tucson AZ, Los Angeles CA, New York City and Cologne Germany plus a whole lot more gigs in 2011. See his exhibitions page on his website for details. Go to latest for his latest work, and browse through an astounding collection of work from the early '90s to the present under index. www.chrismarspublishing.com

"The Carving Stage"

"Requiem for the Penitent"

























"Munch's Hollow"

"Patent Pending"
























"Hierophant"

"A Safe Distance"  scratchboard  15x15"  2010

Joshua Hagler

Joshua Hagler's personal experiences with religious belief and indoctrination inform not only the subject of his paintings but his entire approach to them as well. He paints with a kind of frenzied ecstatic energy that crosses back and forth between representation and abstraction, detail and gesture. As he says in his artist statement, he "intentionally...obscures common conceptions of myth and reality as diametrically opposed, a strategy borrowed from religion itself." The results are a kaleidoscopic onslaught that hints at madness, the kind of madness that might be hell on earth, or the insightful madness of the mystic bringing revelation to our own blind sanity.

He has also created a few installation pieces, and started experimenting with 3-D modeling, and digital printing combined with traditional paint for some interesting results. If I prefer the oil paintings to the rest, I readily acknowledge that it may have more to do with my own conservative prejudices than anything else. I have no doubts whatsoever that here is an extraordinary artist with some disturbing and important things to say.

Mr. Hagler is based in San Francisco, and his work can be seen in person there at Frey Norris Gallery or in New York City at Reaves Gallery.
To look at most of his work online however, go to his website:  www.joshuahagler.com

And as usual, be sure to click on the images to view them larger!

 "Beit Lehem"  96" x 60"  2008

"Descent Into The Wilderness"  77" x 96"  oil on canvas  2009

"Golgotha"  72" x 108" oil on canvas  2008

"Return To The Garden" 16" x 20"  oil on canvas  2010

Thanks to www.escapeintolife.com for bringing this art to my attention

Stephen Cefalo

Stephen Cefalo paints across the boundaries that are supposed to separate fine art from illustration. The Fine Art world is largely engaged in a relentless (and increasingly futile) pursuit of the new. In his Bio it notes that he worked as an assistant to Jeff Koons who arguably is also interested in combining Fine Art with pop-culture imagery but Mr. Cefalo's efforts could hardly be in sharper contrast. After that it says he worked as an illustrator for Rugrats consumer products. So he's very well acquainted with commercialism. He seems to have rejected both of these trajectories. At the same time he was studying under Steven Assael, a different kettle of fish altogether. His interest in Fine Art is historical rather than creating new paradigms, and his interest in illustration has less to do with commercialism than with drama and craftsmanship. He cooks all this up into an allegorical stew of personal narratives that are occasionally cryptic, sometimes troubling, sometimes sweet, but always rendered with loving skill.
Go to his website to see more (www.stephencefalo.com)
or read through his blog for personal commentary on much of the work (stephencefalo.blogspot.com)

"Earth Tones"

"Iconoclast"

"The Kids (Family Portrait)"

"Burn This Painting"

"Mother and Child"

Margaret Bowland 2

The last time I posted her work (December 2008) I had little to say other than "Wow", and I guess that hasn't really changed. These are paintings that speak quite well for themselves. Sometimes a visual can say quite clearly and elegantly things that words can only stumble around. But this blog has become a way for me to practice writing and thinking about art as much as it is a place to share all the wonderful stuff I keep coming across. So with that in mind, I'd like to say that Margaret Bowland is a painter of and about beauty. Beauty is an old pre-modern artistic preoccupation but she approaches it with a very contemporary awareness. Our notions of beauty have changed. We no longer think in terms of ideals or absolutes, despite the fact that we strive for and desire them. She is aware that real beauty, in art as in life, is derived from something inside rather than from the mere surface of things (or people), and so she depicts the tension between these two; Inner beauty vs. outer beauty, how the two can seem so at odds. Interestingly, her technique, the surface of her work if you well, is as beautiful as the content is challenging.
see more of her work at her website: www.margaretbowland.com























White Crows #1 (2007) oil paint on linen 66 x 56 inches






















Murakami Wedding #2 (2009) oil paint on linen 78 x 66 inches























Anna (2005) oil paint on linen 55 x 44 inches























Beloved (2006) oil paint on linen 72 x 60 inches























Flower Girl #2 (2009) oil paint on linen 48 x 48 inches

Colette Calascione

Borrowing from the surrealists and the 18th century, Colette Calascione offers up a mesmerizing assortment of, presumably, allegorical images. Decoding them may not always be easy. It may not even be necessary. Just let your eye explore the details, your mind wander the inferences, and enjoy the evocative nature of these densely depicted scenes.
www.calascione.com

















"Coincidental Gathering" 24" x 28" oil on wood 2003/2004






















"Dream of the Hungry Ghost" 23" x 28" oil on wood 2003
















"Lost at Sea" 10" x 14" oil on linen 2000






















"Alia" 11" x 14" oil on linen 2009

...and of course I simply had to post this piece. Maybe not her strongest work, but hilarious:
















"Abduction" 16" x 20" oil on wood 1997

Rob Evans

These are gorgeous traditional paintings, most with heavy doses of allegory, but it's the light that attracts me the most
www.robevansart.net






















"Study for Movement" by Rob Evans 2004






















"Aftermath 2" 2007