Roberto Ferri is known for his poetic imagery imbued with references to Baroque painters such as Caravaggio and other old masters of Romanticism. His work focuses on the coexistence of good and evil, sacred and profane in both our daily life and our subconscious. In this light, the emotional intensity of his depictions reveals an attempt to connect the parallel dimension, where his almost-theatrical representations take place in a socio-psychological present. The psychological aspects of his figures are projections of different phases that the human soul goes through during its ongoing transformation.
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Having only recently shifted her focus from sculpture to oil painting, Austin based painter Kati Williams will be a new name to most of our readers. Her dramatically lit images of mythological figures are heavily influenced by Baroque painting and the old masters of Romanticism, and a visit to her instagram will catch her admiring contemporary artists like Roberto Ferri and Brad Kunkle (featured in HF Vol. 25), who are also applying antiquated techniques. Though the difference between three-dimensional sculpture and two-dimensional painting is substantial, Williams likens the process of painting to building a sculpture, where she meticulously layers colors and glazes until eventually, light forms out of utter darkness.
Internationally renowned Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum has played the role of both national treasure and art-political rebel since the 1970s. As the founder of the Kitsch movement, he opposed the abstract and conceptual art that dominated Norway at the time in favor of honoring the old world traditions of Rembrandt and Caravaggio. His outspoken views against the modernist “art establishment” and socialist art programs in Norway has elicited backlash from his peers and, as he claims, negative attention from national authorities.
Curated by Jon Beinart of beinArt Collective and Publishing, “beinArt Collective 2013” is a group show that revels in the macabre. The participating artists, including Chet Zar, Christian Rex van Minnen, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Kikyz 1313, Kris Lewis, Erik Thor Sandberg and Caitlin Hackett, all have a dark edge to their work that is manifested in different ways. Christian Rex van Minnen’s work is visceral and grotesque, playing on his viewers’ gag reflexes, while Chet Zar’s subject matter is outright diabolical and Erik Thor Sandberg’s mythological narratives have a brutal quality. “BeinArt Collective” opens at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica on November 9. Take a look at a sneak peek of the show after the jump.