Mark England

"Umber America"  48" x 74"  2012

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"China"  2008

"First Vision"  2012

Mark England's paintings blur the line between map and landscape. What appear at first to be imaginary constructs are in fact references to very real places. There is no attempt to accurately portray the cartography or terrain but rather to pile on symbolic motifs and layers of meaning and associative objects. The intent is to portray the landscape not as an objective reality but as subjective experience awash in personal history and cultural contexts. Whether you see them in this or light or not almost doesn't matter because their beguiling complexity draws you into them regardless. Like the vast panoramic moral landscapes of Heironymous Bosch they invite the eye to wander from one intriguing detail to another, zooming in and back out trying to take the measure of the whole and the parts all at once. Too see more go to the Artist's website: markenglandart.com
His work will be included in two upcoming group shows at Visions West Gallery in Bozeman, Montana from July 12 through August 8 , and at their gallery in Denver from July 5 through the 31st so if you happen to be near either one go check it out.

Matthew Picton

"Dresden - burnt"

"Dresden" - detail

"Dallas"

"Dallas" - detail

"Venice"

"Venice" - detail

I love maps. I love art. And so of course I love art maps and map art. Matthew Picton's work has involved maps for quite some time and his most recent pieces are beautiful sculptures that also incorporate text and sometimes imagery. These city maps portray some cultural or historical aspect of the particular place that will no doubt be familiar to most viewers. Dresden was notoriously fire-bombed in World War II resulting in horrific civilian casualties, and the artist recreates the scene meticulously scorching his model to reflect the scale of the damage. In Dallas John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The artist lines the route of the ill-fated motorcade through the city with images from that very day. His portrait of Venice uses pages from Thomas Mann's class novel "A Death in Venice" as well as the musical score for an opera based on the book by Benjamin Britten. Each piece is carefully layered with meaning, often referencing painstaking research. These details enrich the work without being required for immediate appreciation. There is something incredibly enticing about the three dimensionality of the maps that would no doubt make one want shift about over them, casting back and forth for different angles that subtly change one's perspective, and possibly to peer into the narrow roads and alleyways to get glimpses of fragmented words or images. It makes me glad that he provides at least one detail shot of each piece and usually more. There is plenty more of these maps on his website as well as many other bodies of work all worth looking at on his website: matthewpicton.com

Mark Bennett

"Town of Mayberry"  24.25" x 36.25" lithograph

"Home of Fred and Wilma Flintstone" 24.25" x 36.25" lithograph

"Home of Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson"  32" x 48.25"  lithograph

"Home of Darrin and Samantha Stevens"  24.25" x 36.25" lithograph

I'm generally not a huge fan of conceptual art, but that's usually because the concepts behind them are often so dull. Now here's a concept that makes me think, damn, I wish I'd thought of that. But since I didn't, I'm glad someone else did. Mark Bennett is a loving consumer of popular culture, especially television and film. He carefully observes the environments of his favorite characters and maps out their lives in the form of traditionally rendered blueprints. Like others who grew up poring over Tolkien's maps of Middle Earth I developed a love of maps that correspond to realms of fiction and fantasy. I only wish he had a website of his own where I could browse through his complete body of work. My whole life I've wanted someone to see a map of Gilligan's Island. If he's done it already I've yet to find it.

Here's a couple galleries where you can look through more of his work:

www.connercontemporary.com

www.markmooregallery.com