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

Laurie Lipton - update

Although originally from the U.S. Laurie Lipton has lived in Britain since 1986. At first I thought the dark satirical cynicism that pervades her work must owe something to British culture but she herself pointed out that the truth is simply that it was a perfect fit. Be that as it may, her vision is a singular one that she realizes with meticulous draftsmanship, building layer upon layer of tiny hatch marks like an egg tempera painting. “It’s an insane way to draw”, she says, “but the resulting detail and luminosity is worth the amount of effort. My drawings take longer to create than a painting of equal size and detail.” All of that however is subordinate to the content of her work, which is summed up fairly nicely in the first piece below. It is about the insanity of a supposedly rational age, and the nightmares of technology's broken promises. But it's an insane nightmare revealed with a wit as sharp as her pencils.

I first posted some of Laurie Lipton's work back in February. I recently received an email from her that she will be showing the following pieces plus many more in a few weeks. The rest of the pieces in the show can be viewed here. The show will be in Los Angeles at La Luz Jesus Gallery from November 5 throygh the 28th. So if you happen to be in the LA area during that time, as I wish I was, I recommend taking a look.

And make sure you click on the images below to view them much larger!

 "The Illusion-of-Control Tower"  Charcoal and graphite on paper, framed  59" x 21.75"

 "Treatment"  Charcoal and graphite on paper, framed  25.5" x 29"

"Info Glut" Charcoal and graphite on paper, framed  23" x 20"

"Nut Cracker" Graphite on paper, framed  30.5" x 23"

"Recylcling" Charcoal and graphite on paper, framed  39.25" x 21.5"

Nora Sturges

Nora Sturges paints narrative landscapes in several evocative series. Her most recent work depicts a night fallen world of arctic ruin, where the vestiges of a human presence seem to lie vacant and forlorn upon the ice. In some cases one wonders which is the more recent arrival, the people or the ice? They convey a haunting sense of the precariousness of life on the edges of habitability.

An earlier series called "Marco Polo's Travels" derives it's imagery from Italo Calvino's novel "Invisible Cities" in which a fictional Marco Polo describes the places he has traveled to Kubla Khan. In it she evokes medieval and Persian painting which was used to tell narratives to a largely illiterate populace. She crosses this approach with more modern ideas of tourism, exoticism and xenophobia.

In all her work a delicate and slightly primitive approach helps to create scenes that combine both the exotic and the mundane in a way that not only engages the imagination but demands imaginative participation from the viewer.
There are also two other series on her website and many more paintings in each:
pages.towson.edu/nsturges

Recent Work:

"Housing Estates"  2009  oil on MDF 8"x9"

 

"Platform"  2010  oil on MDF 8"x10"

"Observation"  2009  oil on MDF 9"x11.5"

From "Marco Polo's Travels":

 "Marco Polo Forced To Eat Moths"  2003  oil on panel 11"x10"

 This last piece may be one of my favorite titles of all time...

"Nothing Occurs Here That Is Worthy of Remark"  2004  oil on panel 5"x5.75"

Stanford Kay

Stanford Kay uses the book as a source for what are essentially abstract explorations of form and color. But he never strays so far from the representation of the book itself that his subject becomes unrecognizable. Many of the pieces appear to be painted to match the size of actual books evoking a sense of verisimilitude and heightening the tension between abstraction and representation. This play on the edge of abstraction coupled with all the connotations and associations of the book as an object result in some amazingly evocative paintings. He's also able to get an extraordinary amount of mileage out of what is really a very simple and elegant concept.

Making a living off art is never easy and most of even the more successful artists posted on this blog either teach art at a university or work as illustrators and designers to support their amazing habits. Stanford Kay is no different although interestingly, in addition to illustration he also works on "litigation graphics", a field that had never even occurred to me before now. You can see samples of that on his commercial website if you're curious: www.stanfordkaystudio.com

But for our purposes please check out his fine art site: www.stanfordkay.com
and make sure to click on these images to view them larger!

"The Natural World"  2009  Acrylic on canvas  60" x 48"

"Blue True"  2007  Acrylic on canvas  36" x 40"

"Box # 3"  2008  Acrylic on canvas  20" x 16"

"Golden Section"  2008  Acrylic and collage on canvas  12" x 9"

"My Back Pages (Water's Edge)" 2009  Acrylic on canvas  30" x 36"

"Strata"  2008  Acrylic on canvas  24" x 30"

I originally saw his work posted at www.freaksonline.co.uk