Curated by Jeff Rau, Sixpack Projects. Opening Reception: Saturday, January 8th, 2011, 6-9pm Location: Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach Address: 170 N Promenade, Long Beach, CA Exhibition Dates: January 8th, 2011 – February 17th, 2011
Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday, 4-7pm Website: www.sixpackprojects.com
Sixpack Projects is proud to present CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS, an exhibition of painting and sculpture curated by Jeff Rau, highlighting recent bodies of work by artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff. Though differing somewhat in their choice of subject matter and conceptual approach, the work from these independent projects reveals overlapping concerns with the nature of language, representation, and memory.
About the Artists:
JONATHAN ANDERSON produces oil paintings and is actively exhibiting, both locally and nationwide. He holds an M.F.A. from California State University Long Beach, receiving the Distinguished Achievement Award in Drawing & Painting. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Art at Biola University, where he has been teaching since 2006. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, CA.
NATHAN HUFF produces oil paintings, drawings, and sculpture that create freewheeling narratives: personal stories of suspending gravity, traversing emotional vertigo, and sorting reservoirs of memories. He earned an MFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach in 2010, a degree in art education from Azusa Pacific University and has also studied art in Italy, France, the UK, and Spain. His work has been collected throughout the west by universities, churches, and private collectors. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, CA.
About the Gallery:
Sixpack Projects is a collective of six artist/curators organizing innovative contemporary art exhibitions and events throughout Southern California. We are: Alyssa Cordova, Jennifer Frias, Lilia Lamas, Jillian Nakornthap, Jeff Rau, and Heather Richards. The Sixpack Projects gallery at Phantom Galleries Long Beach features special curatorial projects by the members of our collective and is intended to be a forum for engaging the community in important and relevant cultural discussions through the exhibition of contemporary art. For more information please visit www.SixpackProjects.com or Facebook.com/SixpackProjects
This project is made possible through a partnership with Phantom Galleries Long Beach and The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency. The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency is proud to partner with Phantom Galleries LA/Long Beach in the revival of empty storefronts along our major corridors, while also showcasing the arts and helping to build a sense of community and culture in Downtown Long Beach.
Curator’s Statement:
CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS highlights recent series of paintings and sculptures by artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff. Though differing somewhat in their choice of subject matter and conceptual approach, the work from these independent projects reveals overlapping concerns with the nature of language, representation, and memory.
Anderson’s bodies of work entitled “Constructions” and “Impasse” establish a consistent conceptual framework that uses the flat surfaces of painting to investigate tensions that exist in our understanding of both image and word. It is no small mystery that a flat panel should appear to occupy a deep space–the flat abstract arrangement of paint on a surface evoking an experience of the sensible world–or likewise that written language which exists only in flat, abstract letter-forms should express emotion or speak to the infinite. Yet simultaneously, the painting and the text never forsake their flatness. Rather than propose solutions to this tension, Anderson constructs carefully rendered spaces with both physical and represented obstacles that prevent the viewer from ever fully entering the work, thus forcing the viewer to wrestle with these opposing forces of invitation and obstruction.
By contrast, Huff offers no impediment but invites us down the rabbit hole to revel in realized impossibilities. His series of “Absurd Excavations” fully invites the viewer to enter a new reality where objects and memories are transformed and re-imagined through paint and sculpture. Mining his own personal history and family folklore, Huff begins his work from a very real grounding and then embarks on a wholly original journey. This new narrative lacks a linear path, but proceeds in a series of intersecting tangents that refer back to both real and newly manufactured histories. This complex and playful process continues to inspire new revelations in the work while simultaneously challenging the veracity of the memories on which we ground them.