CHARLES SIEGFRIED with guest artists Kristyn WEAVER & Peter REICHARDT
December 01, 2009 - January 02, 2010
Charles Siegried "Coming Attractions"
Kristyn Weaver "Bullitt Reinterpreted!"
Peter Reichardt "This is This"
During the month of December 2009, Blackfish Gallery presents an exhibition of recent work by Blackfish member CHARLES SIEGFRIED and his artist friends KRISTYN WEAVER and PETER REICHARDT.
The show opens Tuesday, December 1, 2009 and continues through Saturday, January 2, 2010. An opening reception will be held on First Thursday, December 3 from 6-9 pm at the gallery.
Charles Siegfried will be showing large and small works with some paintings over 6' x 4'. He uses paint that is molding and old and standard student grade acrylic paint. He is interested in the thickness and thinness of paint and pushing form to a recognizable face, building or boombox. Siegfried says, "I want to attack the surface; there is no measured, calm reasoning with imagery. With my subject matter of violence and culture, there is no time to be reserved". His subject matter is 80's cultural artifacts and symbols of war. He is influenced by poverty, modern culture, Wayne Thiebaud, TV, laziness, rap music, Philip Guston, processed American Cheese and Clyfford Still. Regarding his painting, Attack Mode, Siegfried says, "This is a mass produced painting that I turned upside down and painted the text: Attack Mode. I want to 'flip the script'. I want to attack conventions of what is good, what is proper, what is art, and what is deemed worthy of display".
Siegfried is a Portland native who grew up in SE and NE Portland and in the Sierra Nevada's. He has spent the last four years painting and teaching in Portland, Oregon.
Guest artist Peter Reichardt's work consists of several drawings and small sculptures executed in a range of traditional media. They range in scale from intimate to expansive. He says, "My artistic practice revolves around the use of appropriating found images and pairing them with an alteration of context which manifests through the studio process. For the past several years I have been working with images of nature and pairing them with formal concerns from modern art and minimalism as well as chance studio events (as defined by Dadaism). These encounters reflect the world and my relationship to it. The images I work with are collected for either their connection to a personal memory/event from my life or for their use towards a desirable aesthetic, material challenge or rendering technique. I feel everything has potential to be quoted or borrowed from, within context to its source or be be made my own."
Reichardt was born and raised in Texas and received his MFA from WSU in 2007. He currently lives and works in Round Rock, Texas.
Guest artist Kristyn Weaver's work ranges from installation to sculpture to drawing. They are of an approachable scale and their subject matter varies from kittens to everyday household objects all living in a world of absurdity. Weaver writes, "All of my technical handling of the medium and formal choices are based on mimicking the original and/or making it as realistic as I can. As far as my subject matter goes, it is meant to be absurd because the work warrants its own existence". In her current works she uses Steve McQueen as the personification of "macho coolness" and kittens as its antithesis. Her source of inspiration comes out of observations of what she considers to be the natural world and a desire to create art using images and objects that she wants to spend time with.
Weaver was born in deserts of El Paso, Texas. She received her MFA from Washington State University in 2008. She is currently working as an art education in Austin, Texas.
Backroom: "Small Works" group show by Blackfish members priced at $125 and under. 100% of proceeds to benefit "Focus on Youth" and "Sisters of the Road".
Fishbowl 1: Carol Benson
Fishbowl 2: Valerie Powell
