Wes Hempel Out of the Woods
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Wes Hempel Out of the Woods
Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com cover: Family History, 2019-20, Oil on canvas, 16" x 16"
For decades, Wes Hempel has committed himself to reimagining the depiction of masculinity in contemporary art. By setting detailed portraits of modern-day males against backdrops taken from sources such as Neoclassical painting or Dutch Golden Age landscapes, the artist’s works spur provocative dialogues between the past and present. Out of the Woods is a selection of new small works on canvas and paper by Hempel that incite us to reconsider our assumed narratives of masculinity and myth. Rendered in sensuously modeled flesh tones, Hempel places his figures in dreamlike, atmospheric landscapes that play with our sense of time and setting, engendering a mysterious ambiguity that references both Arcadian imagery and that of contemporary America. Joining symbolic incarnations of classical art with the eclectic borrowings of Postmodernism, Hempel’s paintings explore the divide between the ancient and modern, reason and passion, the grand and the quotidian. In his series of van Dyck paper pieces, Hempel articulates his carefully rendered figures in oil paint onto the pages of a historical art text, further enriching the visual and conceptual threads found within his art, as visually alluring as they are conceptually rigorous. Born in Southern California in 1953, Hempel received his BA from California State University, Northridge, and his MA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. His art has been the subject of close to a hundred solo and group exhibitions and is included in a growing number of esteemed private and public collections internationally.
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No Reply 2019-20 Oil on canvas 16" x 16" 3
van Dyck Series, Pg 182 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book page 12.75" x 9.5"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 9B 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book pages 12.75" x 9.5"
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Shortcut 2019-20 Oil on canvas 16" x 16"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 7B 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book pages 12.75" x 9.5"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 29 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book pages 12.75" x 9.5"
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Out of the Woods 2019-20 Oil on canvas 16" x 16"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 253B 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book pages 12.75" x 9.5"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 159 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book pages 12.75" x 9.5"
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Underpath 2020 Oil on canvas 16" x 16"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 217 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book pages 12.75" x 9.5"
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van Dyck Series, Pg 186 2020 Oil & graphite on gessoed book page 12.75" x 9.5"
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Wet Landing 2019-20 Oil on canvas 16" x 16"
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Wes Hempel Born: El Monte, California, 1953
2013
Changing Perceptions of the Western Landscape,
Albuquerque Museum of Art & History, Albuquerque, NM
Education:
2010
Lovelines, RedLine Arts Center, Denver, CO
MA, 1988 University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
2009
The Masters Remastered, Ft. Collins Museum of
BA, 1985 California State University, Northridge, California
Contemporary Art, Ft. Collins, CO
2008
Focus: The Figure, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2006
Decades of Influence, Museum of Contemporary Art and
Awards: 2002
Creative Fellowship in Painting, Colorado Council on the Arts
Center for Visual Arts, Denver, Colorado
1992
Creative Fellowship in Literature, Colorado Council on
2004
Contemporary Drawing, Eisentrager/Howard Gallery,
the Arts
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
2003
Magic Realism: A New Generation, Sangre De Christo Art
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
Center, Pueblo, CO
2020
Out of the Woods, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
ConTEXT: Art & Words, Western Colorado Center for the
2014
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
Arts, Grand Junction, CO
George Billis Gallery, Culver City, Los Angeles, CA
2001
The Dream Mill, Lakewood Cultural Center, Lakewood, CO
2012
George Billis Gallery, Culver City, Los Angeles, CA
2000
Together/Working, Gallery of Contemporary Art,
2011
Tacit Turns, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO
Model Citizens, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
The Male Form in Contemporary Art, Hollywood Art
2009
Tied to the Past, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA,
Center, Hollywood, FL
and New York, NY
1999
Real to Surreal, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
Denver, CO
2006
Injury and Desire, Jenkins Johnson Gallery. New York, NY
Re-presenting Representation IV, Arnot Art Museum,
2005
Landscape Fragments, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
Elmira, NY
Collaborative and New Work, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
1998
New Acquisitions, Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
2004
Revised Endings, Jenkins-Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Paradise Lost, Colorado Mountain College, Glenwood
2003
Plot Twists, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Springs, CO
2001
Fictional Accounts, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
1997
Private Worlds: 200 Years of American Still Life Painting,
2000
Canceled Field Trip, Claire Oliver Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA
Aspen Art Museum Aspen, CO
1998
Wes Hempel, Paintings - The First Seven Years, University of
1994
Focus on Colorado/The Front Range: Wes Hempel, Jack
Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY
Balas & Scott Chamberlin, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
1998
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
You Call That Art? One West Art Center, Fort Collins, CO
1997
The Marriage of Fiction and History, Robischon Gallery,
Caste of Stone, Boulder Public Library, Boulder, CO
Denver, CO
1993
Boulder Flow, Sibell-Wolle Gallery, University of Colorado,
1995
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
Boulder, CO
1993
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
2 Much, UMC Gallery, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
1991
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO Selected Museum Collections:
Selected Museum Exhibitions:
Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
2014
The Contemporary Narrative Exploring the Frontiers of
Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
the Representational, The William Rolland Gallery of Fine
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Art, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA
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New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
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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 Š 2020 LewAllen Contemporary, LLC 18 Artwork Š Wes Hempel