COLL.EO is directly involved in PAINT PLETHORA, the first of a series of collaborative projects between Studio Grand and Random Parts. Why? Because we like to get our hands dirty, that's why.
PAINT PLETHORA
STUDIO GRAND 3243 GRAND AVENUE.
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94610
APRIL 3 - MAY 24, 2014
A reception for the artists will take place on Thursday April 3, 2014 6-9 pm at STUDIO GRAND.
“Visual intimacy is among the most honest, primal relationships we have with our perceptual world. Intuition predates the analytic mind. And it is at threat in a culture that values logic over emotion. It is at threat in an art world that values conceptualization over visual intimacy.”
Jason Stopa
PAINT PLETHORA is a group show featuring artists who paint intuitively. Be it abstractions, semi-figurative, narrative paintings, photography, or video, the artists of PAINT PLETHORA are interested in creating a "visual intimacy." The artistic misfits in this show are first and foremost painters. Coming from different backgrounds, they weave their plethora of influences with the poetic, reflective and at times ironic. By emphasizing the visceral, they do not shy away from the essence of painting. These artists let their expansiveness of paint speak for itself. Exhibiting in PAINT PLETHORA are Anthony Harazin, Bernardo Palau, Carlo Ricafort, Colleen Flaherty, Dominic Alleluia, Juan Carlos Quintana, and Nelson E. Enriquez.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Anthony "Weerdo" Harazin: Harazin's gritty paintings are influence by what he experiences on the streets of his East Oakland neighborhood. He sees beauty in all aspects of life, including the "dirtier" sides of things. Originally from Chicago, his intuitive paintings can reference painting in its heyday of the 1980s or the emotive rawness of the Chicago Imagist. Harazin approaches his paintings with honest abandonment and welcomes the unpredictable outcome as if his art is taking a wild ride down International Blvd.
Bernardo "El Bernie" Palau: Palau's paintings are aesthetically pleasing but the Mexican-born artist uses this in order to "trick" the viewer into seeing his world view where things are not as perfect as they seem. Meticulously made with old master precision, Palau's work has a sadness and nostalgic aura that speaks truthfully of the dichotomy of life and death. For this exhibit, Palau will be exhibiting his recently found photographs manipulated so that only a fragmented glimpse of what once was thus questioning reality, time, and space.
Carlo "Carlito's Guey" Ricafort: Manila, Philippines born Ricafort's cryptic paintings are a master of disguise. At first glance they are abstract but upon further viewing what seems like a head appears or a chow mein chicken wing comes out of left field and knocks the viewer off kilter. Ricafort approaches his paintings or "funky abstractions" as if he is a jazz man ready to rip an improvised riff. Infused with cultural wit and a keen sensibility of cultural paradoxes, Ricafort's works are free associative visual commentaries on our complex times.
Colleen "cooldrops" Flaherty: Flaherty's abstract paintings are fierce. There is no pussy-footing or trendy tricks involved. Painting from a subconscious level, the intuitive mark makings of this Cleveland-born artist are transcendental. Flaherty's formal explorations of materials use lines, webs, dots and other forms that challenge conventional modes of perception. She creates a mnemonic mental cartography where a visual intimacy speaks of another realm, a realm inextricably grounded in the real.
Dominic "Dom" Alleluia: Born in New York City, but living in San Francisco since 1958, Alleluia is a painter and interdisciplinary artist. Alleluia describes his art practise as a "commitment to total epic art making". An inetrdisciscilplinary aryist, Alleluia uses painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and video to challenge the aesthetics of "good taste". His work asks provocatively and self-reflectively: "Is this art?" Working with mostly found materials and in different styles for over five decades, Alleluia's works are charged with a vibrant energy and directly confronts issues that matter most in disjointed and fragmented reality.
Juan Carlos "1ka" Quintana: Born on a sugar-cane refinery in Southeast Louisiana of Cuban lineage, Quintana's works references a pre-post-anti-pro revolutionary gumbo/ajiaco potpourri of image making that navigates between narratives and abstractions. Whimsical in style, Quintana embraces ambiguity and contradictions. His oeuvre is infused with irony and satire that often speaks of current events, idealogical conundrums, and lost idealism.
Nelson E. "Nelsua" Enriquez: La Habana, Cuba born Enriquez is a multidisciplinary artist primarily focusing on painting, photography and video; often combining all 3 in a single art piece. Enriquez imbues his work with an awareness of issues that pertain to both social and biographical. Through his art, Enriquez explores themes of immigration, travel, mental and physical borders, consumerism and material scarcity. For this exhibit he is showing his video, "Engravitar". The piece is about a house which was abandoned by a family who left Cuba for the United States in the early 1960s after the Cuban Revolution. The house remains abandoned till this day.
