WashWest is fortunate to have many talented artists. One of the is Mike Pavol, who has a new show opening. Portraits and Such: Recent Work by Mike Pavol November 7–30 at Da Vinci Art Alliance Opening Reception: Friday, November 7, 2014, 5–9pm Gallery Hours: Monday 4–7pm, Wednesday 5–7pm, Friday 4–7pm Saturday and Sunday 12–5pm Exhibition Closes: Sunday, November 30, 2014 Da Vinci Art Alliance, 704 Catharine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147 For more information: 215-990-2973 or mikepavol Portraits and Such: Recent Work by Mike Pavol This exhibit of paintings from the past couple of years is about my interests, questions, excitement about and befuddlement with art, and the making of art. The work is all representational (at least by my standards), using my experience as that kind of painter to drag in other languages, thoughts, designs and digressions to shape the completed image. I came to Philadelphia from Phoenix AZ in 1988 with a head full of modernism (BA Arch., Va Tech 1986), Punk rock and youthful stabs at art, all of which barely co-habited. Taking night classes at Fleisher and PAFA, I fell under the influence of Christine Lafuente, and her enthusiastic pursuit of observation and paint. I plunged in, enjoying the challenge and direction though slightly concerned about where all this was headed. In 2002, a show of Edwin Dickinson’s work, and the variety of routes he explored gave me the nudge I needed to include all of my concerns and ideas as painter, designer and person. Less was I an automaton that channeled unedited visual information (former ideal) and more was I a guy making decisions and choices on how and what to paint. I became less concerned with displaying a cohesive artistic philosophy or perceived consistency, and more with the internal logic of making the individual painting. So with this momentum and a long time curiosity with (and intimidation by) History Painting, I made multi-figure paintings, in addition to the portraits, still lives, landscapes, and figure paintings. Composition, always of importance, became more so as the complexity of the paintings grew, but the resolution I wanted was less obvious. I began experimenting with a mixture of formal and intuitive devices, including the irregular grouping of panels, and incorporating unintended artifacts from the sketch into the final work. I also experimented with the colors used, along with crushing the tonality of an image (a direct Dickinson rip-off). I focused more on portraits around 10 years ago, seeing in portraits the chance to further explore the subtle artifice and theatre (and I mean that in a good way) I saw in this format. The subject and the painted environment they inhabit for the moment provided the tension and interest that I wanted to display, allowing me less reliance on gestures, or how I wanted it to be read. With my trials and tribulations educating and changing me daily, compounded by my deceptive and flaky nature as a visual artist, one should regard the above statement as suspicious and delusional at best. I hope none of this detracts from your viewing of the show.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 23:35:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015