April 30 to May 21, 2015
Ford Crull: Into the Corporal
Francie Lyshak: Atmospheres
Stephen Spiller: On the Wall
Ford Crull
Ford Crull is exhibiting recent paintings for his first show at the Carter Burden Gallery. His paintings explore the intrinsic power and mystery that symbols possess in his richly colored canvases. Crull’s imagery ranges from hearts and text to less identifiable symbols. These symbols coexist in a psychic atmosphere in which they overlap, dissolve, and reappear with a kind of furious insistence. Historical images are particularly fascinating to Crull, because they have very different meanings in a variety of cultures and contexts. Crull’s vibrant paintings invite the viewer to draw on his or her own interpretations to decode the deeper layers of reality. In a wider sense, these paintings constitute a kind of intensive search to wrest meaning from an anarchy of feeling. Crull’s works are meditations on emotional chaos that enter into a world of competing impulses and simultaneous transmissions, seeking a resolution that is both cathartic and mysterious.
France Lyshak
Francie Lyshak is displaying recent paintings for her first exhibition at the Carter Burden Gallery. Each of Lyshak’s paintings shows a color field with a simple line to suggest open, luminous space. The common thread of her work is the examination and representation of internal experiences. Lyshak’s color field paintings provide viewers with a setting to engage in the universal practice of self-examination and meditation, which is inspired by Socrates’ observation that an unexamined life is not worth living.
For his first show at the Gallery, Stephen Spiller will be featured in the installation space, On the Wall. Spiller will be exhibiting four images printed on unstretched canvas. Spiller’s work explores social, political, and cultural commentary on how contemporary life is shaped and lived. The pieces on display are part of Spiller’s larger project “Beauty is the Cruelest Drug” a/k/a Fashion is Murder. Spiller states his task is to “reimagine, through art, the concept of beauty; to present the idea of it as no more than one’s individual perception.”
