Two Solo Shows: David Schirm and Justin Thompson (Back to events)
- Sat, Sep 6th 2008, 7:00pm
- Located at : 2495 Main Street, Buffalo NY
Buffalo Arts Studio presents two solo shows by painter David Schirm and by sculptor Justin Thompson, artists who both cross cultural boundaries to create a forward-looking contemporary aesthetic. Schirm subverts the landscape genre of painting, while Thompson borrows the tree, a common landscape element to imbue complex political, social and environmental commentaries into their work. Join them tonight at the artists' reception.
David Schirm, a professor of visual studies at the University at Buffalo, creates powerful and provocative images through his other-worldly, color saturated scenes In one painting, blood spouts from the ground as if a form of vegetation, turning the land around into a blood soaked pool and in another icebergs float through an endless sea of blood. His images are simultaneously beautiful and unnerving in their subversion of the traditional landscape.
Justin Thompson, an African American artist now living and working in Florence, Italy, addresses through his sculpture the past and present of African American cultural heritage, as well as makes connections to the African presence in Italy. He creates large-scale works from metal armatures to replicate trees and covers them with recycled handmade quilts. The quilts, as the artist explains, “are a metaphor for the patchwork of African American cultural make-up.” The end result created by Thompson’s wilting and languishing trees, is a haunting and monumental forest that arises from the past, creating a link to the present.
September 6, 7PM
Buffalo Arts Studio
2495 Main Street, Suite 500
716.833.4450
