Gabriel Liston

"I'm Going Ashore To Hunt"  Oil on linen  30" x 46"  2012

"I Know Who's Drowned - It's Us"  Oil on linen  34" x 48"  2012

"Say the Prayer For the Dying"  Oil on linen  54" x 42"  2012

"Their Efforts are in Vain"  Oil on linen  14" x 16"  2011

"We Will Be Rich For The Rest of Our Lives"  Oil on canvas  48" x 36"  2008

Gabriel Liston who is originally from Colorado, has a show up right now in Portland, Oregon where he currently lives and works. I happened to stop by the other day (if you're in the area it's only up until Sept 1). His work is immediate and disarming, the brushwork and drawings gestural, almost cartoonish at times but lovingly done. His palette of luminous greens and blues, dark browns and pale pinks perfectly captures the cool forest clad atmosphere of his new home in the pacific northwest. His subject matter is, in his own words, "Children tearing apart the world from the inside out, in those places where the world shows its seams." The quote is slightly cryptic but poetically captures the aching nostalgia for an innocence that never truly was. He depicts the interaction of childhood and the wide world without the interference of an adult reality. The results are only borderline idyllic, for in these dreamlike reveries lies all the tension and pathos that can makes the transition to adulthood so profoundly painful. He develops his imagery by accruing huge amounts of sketches and notes, then translating these into more finished work in the studio. The story book feel of the images is no accident either. The artist has an affinity for old books which he often uses as material for smaller work, often converting the book itself into his canvas. His titles are usually scavenged from these books, and their suggestive narrative potential perfectly suit the evocative imagery.
You can see more at his website: www.lastwater.net
or at his gallery websites: www.froelickgallery.com & www.plusgallery.com

Kevin Arnold

"Blue Totems"  oil on multiple canvases

"Economy Folding Table / model no. H-2232"

"Triple Braced Quad Hinged Beige Metal Hercules Folding Chair"  oil on canvas

"Stay"  oil on multiple canvases

"Annunciation"  oil on canvas

Kevin Arnold's work is a fine a fun combination of objective realism and conceptual installation work. Well some of it anyway. But the thing that all of his work has in common is the use of Trompe L'oeil (french for deceive the eye) technique with a kind of minimalist modern  aesthetic. His subject matter is the invariably the mundane; objects that are utilitarian and normally perceived as uninteresting in and of themselves. He also depicts such mundane images as a tiled wall, the inside of a box lid, or a drywall patch. Most of this is depicted at a 1:1 scale so the the painting visually becomes a stand in for the thing depicted. All of this is of course a way of addressing the very idea and value of realism. His work was recently included in New American Paintings (#100) in which he quotes John Updike: "My only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me - to give the mundane its beautiful due."  People intuitively equate art with beauty. But artists (in fiction, in film, in painting) ask us over and over again, "What is beauty?" For many the answer is everything. It's merely a matter of looking at it all anew.
To see more go to www.notkevinarnold.com

Valerio D'Ospina

"Manhattan"  oil on panel  48" x 32"  2012

"Train Tracks"  oil on MDF  30" x 24"  2011

"Train Cars"  oil on canvas  55" x 71"  2010

"Chicago Alley"  oil on melamined MDF  24" x 17"

"Ship Under Construction"  oil on MDF  42" x 30"  2011

Valerio D'Ospina is an Italian artist currently residing in the U.S. A background studying, replicating and even restoring antique works of art lends his own work a solid academic backbone. But he plays with technique, creating a dense array of streaks, washes and scratches to build up some truly rich images. Color is only spotty if present at all. Indeed, they are more drawing than painting really, but what drawings! The technique may at times be a bit jarring and it works less well on some images than others. But for the most part it is succeeds beautifully, creating a vibrant and frenetic energy that captures the turmoil and raw energy of his urban/industrial subject matter. The artist is not commenting on all of this, as so many artists today seem to do. There is no message of warning or lament. There is a certain bleakness to the scenes, due primarily to that monochromatic pallette, but mostly he just seems to be enthralled by the whole glorious chaos of it all. And he attacks his canvases, panels and boards with the same unbridled confidence as a captain of industry.
There's lots' of work to see on his website: evdospina.com

originally seen on artistaday.com

Jonas Löfgren

"getaway"  graphite on paper  2012

"The House"  graphite and watercolor  2009

"Nowhere"  graphite on paper  2011

"The Cellar"  graphite on paper  2010

"Diamond #8"  graphite, ink and watercolor  2011

Jonas Löfgren is a Swedish artist whose work fits into that wealthy vein of contemporary work called pop-surrealism or sometimes low brow art (there's some confusion about the terms). European takes on the genre tend to be less literal than their American counterparts, more cryptic, less obviously eye-winkingly ironic. Many elements here are common tropes: the generally realist rendering of cartoon like figurations of pre-adolescent characters at odds with a dark confusing world. I enjoy this kind of work in general as anyone whose been following along with me for a while would probably know. I like the lack of pretension, such a welcome relief from all the inaccessible over conceptualized material that haunts the museums and galleries of the high end contemporary art world. But despite the lack of pretension, there is a tremendous amount of both skill and emotional honesty on display. The work is both personal and reflective of a global cultural point of view (which I'm still struggling to pin down and define... no doubt when I do it will have long since moved on). Mr. Löfgren brings to all of this his own unique bag of images and props as well as a haunting drawing style. You can see plenty more including some animation work on his website: www.jonaslofgren.com