MAINSITE Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the first show of 2005, beginning Friday, January 28th and showing through March 12th, with New Work from David Crismon and Haze Diedrich.
We will host an opening reception for the artists Friday January 28th, 7-9 pm. We will also host an artist discussion with David Crismon, Thursday, February 3rd, at 7pm. Admission is free and the public is invited to both events.
For your reading enjoyment, here is a little information about each of the artists-
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The imagery for Oklahoma artist David Crismon’s new work comes from his love for, and extensive knowledge of, art history.
David Crismon finds images of historical paintings, originally created by the likes of Vermeer and Rembrandt, and enlarges them through photocopying and digital scans.
Crismon manipulates the scanned image digitally, layering, and mixing in interferences, creating his own off register representation of these historical images.
He then, almost painstakingly, paints each work on metal, transferring his skewed composition with extraordinary detail and expertise, not dissimilar from the old masters he so lovingly looks to for inspiration.
About his work, Crismon says, “We are constantly going back and revising what we saw in the first place.
I feel it is appropriate to use an old process such as painting to speak about a new process or technology. Digital imaging scans and photocopies are just some of the tools that disseminate visual information and to a large extent determine how modern experience is perceived. By using and quoting from these sources, I want to show history disappearing from fact into mere data.”
David Crismon’s work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows nationally. The artist’s work is exhibited at Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas, TX, Chiarascuro Gallery in Santa Fe, NM., and Michael Berger Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pa. David Crismon also teaches painting and art history at Oklahoma Christian College in Oklahoma City.
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Colorado Artist, Haze Diedrich’s paintings are patchwork abstractions of color, using shape, line and pattern to build up layers of oil paint. Diedrich maintains and scrapes away those layers to both reveal and conceal colors that are inspired by the world around him.
About his work, Diedrich says, “The patchwork technique of building up layers of color comes from many influences. I live in Colorado where the color of sky and land seem to absorb every bit of the sun’s light. I am constantly looking at the relationship of the cool colors of the mountains and the dry colors of the prairies. I like how the colors of the variety of trees play with the ever changing colors of the sky.”
Diedrich states that his experience with painting is largely influenced by how pattern has been represented in the art of minimalist Sol Lewitt and the color field painting of Brice Marden.
Diedrich believes that art is a storyteller’s passion. He accompanies each painting in his portfolio with a poem, that he has written, which in part, develops into the title of the painting.
On abstraction, Diedrich says, ”I have removed the figures and the simple cause and effect story to explore how we remember an event through color and shape, texture and surface history.”
Diedrich has exhibited his work in Minnesota and Colorado. It is his first time exhibiting in Oklahoma.
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Please join us in welcoming these wonderful artists to the MAINSITE.
Thanks!
