Woodward Gallery presents GROUP SEVEN, an exhibition focusing on seven artists and their varied techniques of painting. Though AI and NFT art production has captured quite a bit of public speculation, we are taking a closer look at more traditional, yet compelling techniques for making tangible art. Specifically, Woodward Gallery’s current exhibition, GROUP SEVEN, features the painted work of Jose Aurelio Baez, Deborah Claxton, Cosbe, RH DOAZ, Mark Mastroianni, Daniel Rosenbaum, and Francesco Tumbiolo and their varied methods.
Together, these artists modernize the traditional artistic mediums of painting with exciting, contemporary twists. Jose Aurelio Baez collages advertisements and wallpaper to create urban-styled paintings. Deborah Claxton’s hand-cuts numerous bits of tiny pieces of paper under a magnifying glass to construct her almost photographic image. Cosbe harnesses his raw emotions onto found objects to create striking works of art. RH DOAZ is a known street, public, and mural Artist who contemplates humanity and the natural world in his work. Similarly, Mark Mastroianni has mastered Casein paint to achieve a smooth surface with natural shapes and patterns found in stone, granite, and ice. Abstract painter Daniel Rosenbaum imagines an unnatural environment conjuring a new reality. Francesco Tumbiolo paints ambiguous gestural figures in primary colors, inviting the viewer to participate. Each Artist in GROUP SEVEN presents their own style of painting technique in contrast to the absurd notion that tangible art has lost its relevancy in the Contemporary Art World.
GROUP SEVEN is on view in Woodward Gallery’s street-level windows from March to May 2023. Please plan to visit in person 24/7 from our street-level exhibition windows, and by private appointment. It is available with a full-color catalogue on our website and also online, on Artsy.net and Widewalls.ch.
Jose Aurelio Baez
Thinking About Dying, (Kill The Ideas), 2023
Mixed media with collaged advertisements, spray, acrylic and oil paints on canvas
40 x 30 inches; 101.6 x 76.2 cm canvas size
41.5 x 31.5 inches; 105.4 x 80 cm framed size
Signed, dated and titled on verso
Jose Aurelio Baez“Killing the Idea” refers to doing difficult work that may sometimes seem wrong, or unacceptable, in the moment. When facing great challenges, it can often feel like the end of the world as we know it. In this work, the skull represents the artists’ own fears of failure in success, love, and fulfillment in life. By killing the ideas that limit us with unrealistic expectations, we can learn to live and thrive without fear.
Mark Mastroianni
Crystal Terrain, 2022
Casein milk paint on canvas
40 x 30 inches; 101.6 x 76.2 cm canvas size 41 x 31 inches; 104.1 x 78.7 cm framed size
Signed LR
Mark MastroianniThrough my interest in the materials used for my art, I refined a specific technique to achieve a desired, smooth surface. My work has long been focused on the properties of water— from evaporation, to condensation, to solid states— leading my process to incorporate Casein milk paint.
Casein protein has been used for centuries as a medium for pigment, but rarely since the development of oil and acrylic. Experimenting with ice, collage, and the unique properties of the Casein itself has developed into this new painting series, where shapes unify to create the overall atmospheric effect. I am inspired by the organic qualities of stone, shale, granite, and natural material to form my patterns.
Left to Right: Mark Mastroianni, Deborah Claxton, RH
Deborah Claxton
Baltimore, 2002
Hand-cut paper mounted to archival board
21 x 14.5 inches; 53.3 x 36.8 cm
Custom framed in Museum Optium Tru Vue Invisible Acrylic
Coming from a sculpture background, I imagine the layering from bottom to top to build cut-paper collages. Working from a home studio in Maryland, my tools are tiny cuticle scissors and a magnifying lens. This exact process of building an image with hundreds of bits of paper is a labor-intensive process, but highly rewarding.
Deborah Claxton
RH DOAZ
The Future Is Certain, Give Us Time to Work It Out, 2023
Oil, aerosol, wood stain on wood
29 1/2 × 7 1/2 inches; 74.9 × 19.1 cm
Signed and dated on verso
Humanity and the natural world have always been in conflict. Can we do better or are we on a road to nowhere? When understanding the drastic effect of human’s contribution to global warming, it is often most dramatically noticed in the loss of habitat for arctic animals. Puffins juxtaposed with tropic foliage is a dystopian nod to the possibility of an arctic animal’s refugee status in the jungle. Is this the inevitable outcome? Give us time to work it out.
RH DOAZ
Left to Right: Baez, Mastroianni, Claxton, DOAZ
Mark Mastroianni
Shalesville, 2022
Casein paint on canvas
26 x 24 inches, 66 x 61 cm canvas size
27 x 25 inches; 68.6 x 63.5 cm framed size
Signed LL
Daniel Rosenbaum
Chill Child, 2023
Acrylic and ink on canvas
55 x 39 inches; 139.7 x 99.1 cm
Signed on verso
Through the use of Styrofoam, rubber scrapers, and paint, my art captures the spirit of natural patterns. Remembering abstract colors and landscapes from my dream state, I paint imagined worlds otherwise unlikely to envisage. I work on the floor, pouring semi-translucent layers of thin and thick stained paint to evoke grand skies, impossibly-colored landscapes, and mythical creatures as if one is taking an abstract journey over unknown terrain.
Daniel RosenbaumCosbe
Magic, 2020
Mixed media on wood board
34 x 24 inches; 86.4 x 61.0 cm
Signed on verso
Cosbe
My raw emotions are embodied in this frenzied, hand-painted visualization of understanding and acceptance.
Left to Right: Daniel Rosenbaum, Cosbe, Francesco Tumbiolo
Francesco Tumbiolo
Old Tricks #42, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches; 121.92 x 91.44 cm canvas size
49 x 37.5 inches; 124.5 95.3 cm framed size
Signed on verso
Francesco Tumbiolo
The series, “Old Tricks,” was completed, just before the pandemic hit. It takes inspiration from the theatrical play, “La Grande Magia” (“The Great Magic”) from one of the most acclaimed Italian playwrights of the last century, Edoardo De Filippo. The works in this series can be seen as a reflection on the concept of magic, intended both as charm and sorcery, enchantment as well as fear. Through magic tricks, the magicians (or tricksters) have their audience play a game. The performance, however, needs the audience itself to be involved in an active role. Without the participation of a compliant public, the magical act would not be able to be fully performed. Why focus on magic nowadays? We can see these years as a transitional time in which humanity will move from old games/tricks to some new ones. “Old Tricks #42” in particular depicts a figure offering or introducing the public to a strange new object. We all may be offered new games or tricks in the near future through some magic acts, new games replacing old ones, and games to be played for the next decades or centuries. Our participation is required.
Francesco Tumbiolo, Old Tricks #42, (detail), 2019
JOSE AURELIO BAEZ
Strange Manifestations, 2020
Acrylic, newsprint collage on paper
16 x 12 inches; 40.6 x 30.5 cm paper size
19.25 x 15.5 inches; 48.9 x 39.4 cm framed size
Signed and titled on verso in ink
Jose Aurello Baez, Strange Manifestations, (detail), 2020
