Sunday, January 17, 2010

Doze Green and Josh Keyes Shows in New York

Doze Green
New works

January 16, 2010 through February 13, 2010
NEW YORK, NY (January 2, 2009) — Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present a selection of new works by Doze Green in the gallery's Project Room.

Working in an array of mediums such as ink, gouache, metallic pigments, charcoal and collage, Green’s signature aesthetic creatively combines stylized letterforms and figurative abstraction with fluid continuous line work, resulting in an evolved approach to organic cubism.
Returning for what will be the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, this show will feature a new series of original mixed media works on canvas, watercolors on paper, and black and white contour line paintings on cardboard.

The largest work featured in the show entitled Siddhartha, made it’s debut in December of 2009 during Chimera, an exhibition curated by David Hunt as part of the Scope-Miami International contemporary art fair. Siddartha is the companion piece to Green’s earlier Omega Bridge canvas, a collaborative painting created with the Brazilian street artist Fefe Talavera, which measured over thirteen and a half feet wide. The Omega Bridge piece was exhibited in Green’s 2008 solo exhibition N.O.O.N.—No One Observes Nibiru.

Green recently completed a set of two large-scale public murals commissioned by CityCenter in Las Vegas, Nevada. He named the project Crossroads of Humanity. The two murals, which contain muti-figure imagery, occupy the surfaces of 6 conjoined walls (3 walls each). Wrapping around several corners, the total combined wall distance measures 80 feet wide by 20 feet high, per mur

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 west 20th St, 9th floor
New york, NY 10011
Jan16 – Feb 13
Opening Reception: Jan 16
7 – 9pm

Josh Keyes
Fragment

Gallery I
Solo Exhibition

Opening Reception : Saturday, Jan 16th, 7—9pm

January 16, 2010 through February 13, 2010
NEW YORK, NY (January 2, 2009) — Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Fragment, a solo exhibition of new works by Josh Keyes. In what will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, Keyes continues to expand upon his signature aesthetic. Rendered in clean, controlled and finely detailed realism, the paintings in Fragment feature various wildlife species isolated within habitats that foreshadow a theoretically dystopian fate. These fragmented landscapes are surrounded by a sea of empty white space, representing the universal unknown in an allegorical interpretation of the effect of contemporary civilization’s disconnect from nature.

Through his work, Keyes often explores timely political and ecological themes which involve a deep concern for the environmental crisis our planet is facing. This includes aspects of the effects of global warming such as: climate change, species extinction, the decline of natural resources and the threat of rising sea levels. All of these issues are integrated and woven throughout the mythological fabric of the work, in a resounding visual study on causality. Subject matter suggestive of hope, healing and mortality is conveyed through the shedding of skin, exposed bone and skeletal structures, while green growth and butterflies symbolize transformation and rebirth.

The artist has said: “Through my work I attempt to examine the phenomenon of transformation, in a metaphorical interpretation of both biological and psychological change. These paintings embody an idiosyncratic vision, yet the familiar imagery allows for a connection to collective concerns, shared globally. The animals I paint personify unconscious drives and energies. The tension created when unconscious elements meet the conscious landscape is something that holds tremendous mystery and fascination for me. It is in this space that I feel free to explore the depths of archetypal and mythical potentiality. What began as a personal journey has (I hope) translated into images with emotional impact that resonate with others to question their own temporality.”