BERNARDUCCI.MEISEL.GALLERY
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PHOTOREALISM AT ART MIAMI
A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
29 NOVEMBER – 4 DECEMBER 2016
BOOTH #D403
Miami, FL — Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery is pleased to announce Photorealism at Art Miami (Booth D403), a comprehensive overview of historical works by Robert Cottingham, John DeAndrea and Richard Estes that will be complimented with contemporary paintings by Roberto Bernardi, Ester Curini, Park Hyung Jin, Cheryl Kelley, Sharon Moody, Adam Normandin, and Raphaella Spence.
Robert Cottingham’s painting Hot, 1992 will be featured as an example of his canonical close up representations of neon signs. This painting focuses solely on the three letters and reveals very little background. The neon is unusual in that it is depicted in daylight. All the elements of a great painting are symbolically represented creating a superb exercise in light and form. Cottingham utilizes his formal proficiencies and casts ominous shadows below and adjacent to the sign. The artist believes his work is a search for fragments and details of our environment that say more about man’s condition than about man himself.
Richard Estes has become known as the grand master of Photorealism. His classic New York City view entitled, Old Police Headquarters (1984) captures a quintessential Estes scene. A solitary street, figureless sidewalks, unmoving cars all add up to a modernized Hopper-esque composition. An Estes painting “convinces and engages the sophisticated viewer far beyond what one would normally expect.” John Perreault.
John DeAndrea’s Classical Allusion (1989) is a life size sculpture of a nude woman with long, brown hair leaning thoughtfully on a male torso. The female figure is cast in Polyvinyl and hand painted with oil. The male torso is hand carved marble. The figures are reminiscent of the myth of Pygmalion who fell in love with his lifelike sculpture Galatea. The accuracy of this sculpture gives one an uncanny sensation that she might actually be alive. Her skin and hair appear only too real lacking only a heartbeat and breath.
Roberto Bernardi’s La Festa del Paese (2014) is as ‘hyperrealistic’ as it gets. This meticulously detailed painting of lollipops and suckers, glass jars and gum balls scattered on a seamless background measures nearly six feet across. This larger than life still-life is indicative of Bernardi’s refined compositions and technical skill. He captures the minutia of each band of colored confection, the reflections in the cellophane wrappers, stainless steel and even in the glass jars themselves. His paintings are metaphors for all that is jubilant in the life of this artist who began the series when his first child was born, six years ago. La Festa was recently on view at the Nassau County Museum of Art, New York.
Ester Curini’s painting Kenda is the seven foot tall ‘portrait’ of a frisky doe. Curini’s virtuosity not only captures every detail of fur but more importantly, the animal’s inquisitive personality. The artist’s first encounter with the deer was in a field in upstate New York near the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Woodstock, a location she has returned to often in her career. Like all of Curini’s animal ‘portraits’ it has a stark, white background with the doe’s surroundings—rolling fields, tree lined forest and clear blue sky visible only in the reflection of its eye. Her work was recently on view in the exhibition, ‘Observation/Reference/Gesture’ (October 14 – December 2, 2016) at the Ringling College of Art and Design Art Galleries in Sarasota.
Cheryl Kelley’s Blueberry Hill (2016) is a impeccably detailed painting of a bright blue, Chevrolet Bel Air from the 1950s. It’s the artists’ largest painting to date. The car is cropped in a way that highlights its impressive back fenders, indicative of car design from this era. It is parked in a lush grass field where every detail of the scene is accounted for. The chrome bumper mirrors the sunlight and its surroundings, generating a noir-like narrative in the reflections. Kelley paints on metal offering a fresh perspective on the sensuality of these sculptural vehicles and Kelley’s love for classic car design.
Sharon Moody’s Drowning Girl (2015) is a trompe l’oeil painting of the November 1962 issue of a Secret Hearts comic book. This iconic image has a history of being reproduced by other painters including Roy Lichtenstein. In her version, Moody attentively renders the original source of this image in a way that is thoughtful and eye-catching. She centrally locates the comic on a background that matches the figures’ skin and leaves the honey suckle cologne advertisement subtly exposed. It is a carefully crafted scene of romance and drama that is described sensationally within every considered detail of the artist’s distinctive technique.
Park Hyung Jin’s painting Se-Hyung in Darkness (2015) is impressive in its detail, scale, and level of precision. The hair becomes an obsession for the artist and a metaphor for the viewer. The artist teaches painting at University in Seoul, Korea and often uses his students as subjects in his intimate portraits and there is a long waiting list for those who wish to be painted by the artist. Each student is portrayed in a manner that is intricate and personal. Their individual identity confronts the viewer with their gaze and monumentality
Adam Normandin’s painting On the Run (2016) is a unique head on view of two trains ‘laid up’ in a yard near the artist’s studio. The exploratory curves of the graffiti are contrasted by artist’s linear composition. The artist becomes familiar with his subjects as he must trespass onto the dangerous tracks during the early morning hours to capture the images he uses to paint from. The smooth light quality unique to Los Angeles is present in many of his paintings.
Raphaella Spence is the most well-known female Photorealist working today. Her painting, Roma di Sera (2016), depicts the historical Italian city skyline over a bridge on the Tiber river in Rome. The city’s history is mirrored in its architecture that it is meticulously painted in the foreground and reflected in the river. The sky is majestic and surreal, glowing above the warmly lit buildings. It is a uniquely exceptional view of a place that has no shortage of artistic representations.
Many of the artists exhibited here are also on view in the traveling museum exhibition 50 Years of Hyperrealism that is currently on view at the Osthaus Museum in Hagen Germany through January 2017. The exhibition has traveled to notable institutions such as the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Spain, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, The Birmingham Gallery of Art and more.
