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Ethan Murrow uses film and photography to create farcical, theatrical narratives that are then translated into large-scale graphite drawings. These beautifully rendered drawings focus on characters as outrageous innovators and absurd explorers capturing a sense of adventure, satire, fun and defeat. Drawing upon what he calls a “childhood determination to succeed and an adult obsession with glory and heroism,” Murrow’s stylized images invite his audience to consider the complexities of aspiration. The absolute confidence and passion of Murrow’s characters are intended to stand in contrast to the possibly dubious outcome of their efforts. Ethan explains, “I both admire and fear this kind of certainty.”
Catherine Howe insists that her paintings, which appear to reference 17th-century still life paintings, are not about representation or narrative; rather, she says they are exercises in the evocative power of painting as a material. What appear to be flora, figures, and foods dissolve into abstract flurries of brush marks and fields of commingled colors when observed closely. The painted surfaces vary widely in paint application, with some areas thinly glazed or quickly sketched, and others so thick they appear to be in relief. Howe’s palette is known to be strong and vibrant, though not without eerie contrasts; her technique includes splatters, spills, and the scraping away of paint.
Philip Govedare creates intricate, layered landscapes that are suggestive of a complex narrative of natural forms and human intervention. His paintings elicit questions about our role in nature and how our activity has reshaped the earth’s surface.
“My work is a response to landscape that is vast in scale and inspires the imagination to contemplate our place in the world, what came before us and what lies ahead. While my paintings may elicit questions about our role in nature and the transformation of the earth’s surface, they are above all, a celebration of the beauty and mystery of the earth and the natural world we inhabit.”
– Philip Govedare
German artist Andreas Kocks works primarily in massive and meticulously crafted installations of cut paper. Working with paper and a limited color palette, Kocks’s forms seek to evoke and balance elements from four artistic genres: the linearity of drawing, the painterly brushstroke, the site-specific element of architecture, and the physicality of sculpture. His installations carry a quality of movement and spontaneity, recalling splatters, marks and drips, but are carefully constructed from layers of cut watercolor paper.
