ALLURE
Opening Reception
Friday, November 3rd, 2023
7:00 - 10:00 PM
free and open to the public
Exhibition runs through december 29, 2023
ALLURE :: A GROUP EXHIBITION FEATURING
LELA BRUNET, CAMERON BLISS, PATRICK HEAGNEY, KRISTA GRECCO, SPENCER HERR
We are pleased to announce our seventh exhibition for 2023 : ALLURE featuring Lela Brunet, Cameron Bliss, Patrick Heagney, Krista Grecco, and Spencer Herr.
LELA BRUNET
For many years Artist Lela Brunet has exclusively worked on large-scale murals and street art throughout Atlanta and the Southeast. This new series of Fine Art will be her first time back in the studio in five years. This was both exciting and frightening for the artist to flex this long dormant muscle. Creating work in the privacy of her own studio (with no outside input) gave her an opportunity to relearn to be okay with mistakes, exploration, and discovery in her art making. This new series her slowly stepping out of her comfort zone and becoming more confident and bolder in her choices. In this new series she found her joy in making art again by pulling from her past style and from her years creating murals. Decorative floral motifs, heavy usage of metallic leaf, street art tagging patterns, retro color palettes, and elegant graphite female figures are just a few of the elements throughout this new collection of work.
SPENCER HERR
Employing nostalgia sourced from children's books, advertisements and American art history these paintings hint at the separation we often feel. From the past, future, each other, and the land. However, at least here, separation is an illusion. At the same time and almost paradoxically they are imbued with joy and hope as they play into the unknown, relying on each other to imagine and construct a better future no matter what comes.
CAMERON BLISS
From simplistic backgrounds to complex interiors rich with plant life, patterns and symbolism, my autobiographical paintings are formed from fragments of past memories, dreams and experiences. As one views the figures in my paintings, one might feel as though they suddenly interrupted an intimate exchange suspended in time. I try to paint authentic souls existing in their mundane realness. My art has always been a way for me to make sense of the world around me in the same way that dreams help us uncover what is hidden beneath the obvious surface, and to delve deeper into understanding our own personal truths.
PATRICK HEAGNEY : 'Time Away'
One of the ironies of the greater social connectivity of the 21st century is that it often comes at the cost of being connected to ourselves and the present moment. It is easier than ever to be detached, lost in anxieties about the future or ruminations on the past. We focus on things that aren’t happening right now, right here. In this state, consciousness, identity, memory, and perception are disconnected.
These moments-that-are-not-moments build upon one another. Over time, they shape an entire life that is fragmented—disconnected.
This body of work is a romanticized visual representation of dissociation: zoning out, mental escape, not being present.
There are three physical layers to each work. The back layer represents the original experience itself; it is the only solid layer. The other layers are largely transparent, allowing a glimpse at the experience but obscuring it at the same time.
The middle layer depicts the person in that moment, separated by physical space from the original experience, representing their detachment from the present. They are close to it but they can’t touch it—in a way, they were never really there in the first place. It contains a relatively straightforward depiction of our subject.
The third layer, the layer the viewer must view the other components through, represents the haze and imperfections of memory, looking back on a moment they never fully experienced, separated by physical and emotional space both from who they were at the time, during the original experience. This layer is the only layer the viewer—observing the scene after the fact—can touch.
KRISTA GRECCO
I am drawn to objects that have a history and a story to tell. At home and in the studio, I surround myself with bits of nature, curiosities, and nostalgic trinkets. Dried mushrooms, gnawed bones, old toys, and tattered stuffed animals line the shelves and feed my imagination. I treasure these objects for their narrative and formal appeal. They are beautifully weathered, abstracted, and colorful. Surfaces and details may have faded over time, but the emotions tied to these objects are palpable.
Much like the objects I collect and treasure, my figurative and animal sculptures tell a story. They are fully realized characters; flawed but strong, sad but hopeful, playing the part of the reluctant protagonist in their own unfinished stories. Gesture, form, proportion, and color are pushed, stretched, and simplified to enhance the narrative and highlight emotion.