Trevor Young

"Claim Etiquette"  50" x 50"  oil on canvas  2012

"Blue Brand"  42" x 42"  oil on canvas  2012

"Civilian Departure"  42" x 42"  oil on canvas  2013

"Three Squares"  48" x 48"  oil on canvas  2013

"Man in Box"  42" x 42"  oil on canvas  2011

Trevor Young's paintings combine minimalism and realism in perfect combination to capture the peculiar loneliness that haunts America's constructed landscapes. This atmosphere or spirit of loneliness is especially strong at airports. Traveling by car, bus or train, it is possible to open a window and breathe the air rushing by, which somehow turns the act of transportation into adventure. Airplanes and Airports are containers in which everything is in a state of suspended unreality, disconnected from the larger world. And yet, there is still something latent within them that holds a promise... for they also are the means of the most significant physical translocation available to us. They represent not only the very limits of impersonal tedium but also the promise of unlimited exploration. This kind of dichotomy is present in much of our contemporary built environments. The artist seems to love the cold impersonal structures of modernity in a way that is not remotely ironic, but rather it's opposite. There is wonder here. It seems to me as if the artist somehow possesses that spirit of loneliness, as if he becomes it, personifies it, and coolly observes with seeming detachment, and yet captures with aching nostalgia, places that most of us never look at twice or even notice at all as we bustle through or past them.
You can see more at his website, www.trevoryoung.net
or the websites of his galleries, J. Cacciola Gallery in NY, and David Klein Gallery near Detroit.

Mark Bradley Shoup

Storm Shelter

If you're like me all those flat geometric abstracts paintings out there can make the eyes start to glaze over. But when an artist like Mark Bradley Shoup represents recognizable structures and elements in a highly abstracted manner, you begin to see what maybe those other artists were getting at. Only they didn't get at it. These do. We are surrounded by abstraction. The geometric version of it stems largely from the human constructed reality most of us live in. But we either translate shapes into things with a functional meaning or we ignore them. Mark Bradley Shoup just looks at them. And then he maps out these wonderful images complete with designer colors suitable for framing. But seriously. These are subtly done. You can go to Mark Bradley Shoup's website (www.markbradleyshoup.com) to see more of his work, and if you like these, by all means do so. The work is consistent and there's a good deal more of it. But I'm a little disappointed at the dearth of information. How big are these? Do they have titles? Which ones are more recent, and which are older? (it's always nice to get a sense of trajectory when you notice subtle shifts in an artists work). Anyway, I shouldn't complain too much because what matters is that the paintings are immediate, engaging, and skillfully done. So what if they don't have titles, mostly. They're not really things anymore. They're shapes and colors and they help us see the world a little bit differently than we did before. And that, my friends, is art.

Frank Webster

Reminds me of Charles Scheeler. I love the choice of subject in this first piece. An elegant design, completely abstract and completely real. You can't make that stuff up.
Also the scale seems very appropriate and must make for quite an impact in person.
http://fwebster.com/

















"Sunset Park" 2007 72" x 54"














"Blue Highway" 2002 117" x 78"