The Gift of Art
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The Gift of Art
A curated selection of ten works perfect for the holiday season
LewAllenGalleries Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com
cover: Jivan Lee, Storms Above Santa Fe, 2016, oil on panel, 36 x 48 in
Tom Palmore, Mister Adorable, acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in $8000
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Tom Palmore, Bobcat, 2016, acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in $8000
TOM PALMORE's ultra-real renderings of animals in oil and acrylic offer a unique and
often comical juxtaposition of technical literalism and surreal, imaginative context—questioning the established conventions of photography and painting, especially as evident in the portrait genre. Palmore’s witty and whimsical portraits take our humans instinct toward personifications of animals to an extreme. It’s been said of the artist that he approaches each painting as though it were commissioned by the subject itself. This inversion of role between artist and subject is perhaps one of the predominant ways the artist achieves the illusionary quality so intrinsic to his work. When asked what his paintings are about, he says, “They’re about other earthlings that we share this planet with…and about our relationship with them.” Palmore’s paintings have a masterly eloquence that elevates his subjects’ status and renders them in oil and acrylic with the dignity, even personality, suggestive of his view of their full partnership on the earth with humans.
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FORREST MOSES's monotypes of serene woodlands and placid bodies of water emphasize both the tranquility of their subject matter and the eloquence of their understated gestures. He presents an art of intimation rather than disclosure, where seasons are suggested by subtle color harmonies, expertly balanced compositions include no more than is necessary in the service of evocation, and a uniquely refined and fluid elegance informs each and every brushstroke. Right: Forrest Moses, M 13/15, 2013, monotype, 30 x 22 in $8500
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Above: John Fincher, Little Blue #6, 2011, oil on paper, 7 x 5 in $2500 Right: John Fincher, Fifteen Brush #1, 2015, oil on linen, 10 x 8 in $3500
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Distinguished by a singular blend of sensuality and authentic realism, JOHN FINCHER's art explores diverse art historical and personal references to offer new understandings of America's natural and cultural landscapes. Exercising a profound economy of means, his works of nature-based imageryderive startling emotional resonance from a combination of rigorously balanced composition, nuanced brushwork, dramatic shadowing, and the application of intense points of contrasting colors to punctuate significant visual elements. Elsewhere, as in an enigmatic suite of shaving brush paintings, the artist transmutes commonplace objects into powerful expressions that compound the equivocal with the intensely diaristic. 5
MATTHEW CURTIS, drawing upon an ongoing
fascination with biology and architecture, creates geometric, organic forms from glass, colored oxide, and steel. His dynamic sculptures play with texture and transparency, evoking fragments of architectural space .
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Matthew Curtis, Incline Red and Gold, blown & fused glass, stainless steel, 15 x 15.75 x 4.5 in $9000
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Skip Steinworth, Single Flower in Bright Light, 2016, graphite on board, 19.75 x 11 in $10000 8
Skip Steinworth, Shallots, 2017, graphite on board, 7.75 x 9 in $5200
SKIP STEINWORTH’s radiant drawings, without embellishment of color and
rendered with extraordinary finesse and minimal context, reach for the infinite. Steinworth states, “It’s a process of mentally deconstructing, analyzing and distilling the visual essence of a subject.” In his hands, a potted plant becomes far more than just a potted plant: effortlessly, he transcends subject matter by capturing its ultimate, almost spiritual essence, what Ingres called its “inner form.” While Steinworth’s drawings, according to Art Scene Magazine, are “gutsy in their rejection of bombast,” they retain a remarkable energy in their masterful composition, evocation of light, space, and form. Like the Dutch and French old masters before him, Steinworth pays careful, almost obsessive attention to arrangement, lighting, scale and subject matter, elevating the everyday to resplendent expression.
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JIVAN LEE’s extraordinary New Mexican vistas are visual celebrations of the land and its ineffable mysteries. Primarily painted en-plein-air, Lee’s expeditions into the Land of Enchantment are testaments to his physical engagements with the land, and also function as visceral explorations into the sensory nature of paint itself. Up close they celebrate paint for paint’s sake – luscious, colorful, moldable. In their opulent textures, his surfaces assume the felt sensation of earth, rock, water, and sky. When viewed at a distance, the paintings collect into studies of light – a dazzling transformation that highlights the relationships between familiar image and raw material. 10
Jivan Lee, Storms Above Santa Fe, 2016, oil on panel, 36 x 48 in $8000
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SAMMY PETERS creates highly textured canvases that feature a sophisticated interplay of
painting and collage. Uninterested in clean, uniform surfaces, Peters arranges fields of expressive brushwork, paper and fabric in subtle allusions to patterning and iconography. With a background in signage and set design, Peters has a vast understanding of diverse methods of image-making, resulting in layered fields of assorted texture and color. Peters’ fascinating engagement with materials and surface references the full effects of collage – its intricacies as well as its depth of association.
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Sammy Peters, Repose: unquiet; determination, 2015, oil and mixed media on board, 40 x 30 in $7500
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Happy Holidays from Everyone at LewAllen Galleries
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Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com Prices included are current retail prices and are subject to change at any time without notice. Availability of artwork shown is subject to prior sale. Š 2017 LewAllen Contemporary LLC Artwork Š LewAllen Galleries