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| A Deal With The First Devil You Came Across (2011) by Jeff Ramirez |
Last December, Thinkspace gallery exhibited a show called "The New Realism" which displayed a group of six artists including Aaron Nagel, Jeff Ramirez, and Jennifer Nehrbass. Well, they have a current show going on which again features these three artists. And, if you missed the December show, you have another opportunity to admire the fine figural realism of these artists.
I've written about Jeff Ramirez's work before at a show last May. His paintings still contain a powerful mix of highly detailed realism blended with obscurity or inscrutability of significance. With figures hidden under trashcans or brightly colored clothes, the paintings are visual enigmas. The painting above is not as overtly indeterminate, but it still uses cropped, foreshortened, and obscured compositional elements to create a mystery in regards to its premise.
Aaron Nagel's work approaches the mysterious in a different manner. His paintings of realistic female nudes evokes the transcendent quality of religious iconography. Upon a shadowed background, the women shine with supernal radiance, like carnal saints of mortal Beauty. Nagel's figures are exemplars of that which contemporary society worships.
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| Sincerely II (2011) by Aaron Nagel |
My original training in the Arts was focused on religious iconography. So, Nagel's work really resonates with me. If "deus mortuus est" then what is the purpose of the "ora pro nobis"?
