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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Portland based artist Eric Wert, first featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 32, is known for his larger than life and visually intense still life paintings of plants and food. Though his style is hyper-realistic, there is something about his portrayal of the vibrancy and ripeness of his subjects that makes them more appealing than life. Wert makes every day florals and foods like grapes and tomato look beautiful and evocative with a certain wildness. He has said, "I want to create an image that one can be lost within. To me, still-life painting is about looking intensely. It's about intimately exploring a subject." For his current exhibition at William Baczek Fine Arts in Massachusetts, Wert created a smaller series featuring hydrangea, lilies, pansy, iris, and figs in luscious, glistening still lifes.
To the artists in Roq La Rue's upcoming exhibition "Lush Life: Reverie", the lushness of late summer means bright pops of color, surreal fertile gardens, sensual heroines, and luxurious depictions of nature. Opening July 30th, the Seattle gallery is bringing back their "Lush Life" exhibition series with a newfound sense of fantasy. The exhibit features artists that have always explored natural themes to varying degree; Adrian Cox, Amanda Manitach, Ashley Eliza Williams, Casey Curran, Casey Weldon (HF Vol. 32), Christian Rex Van Minnen (HF Vol. 25), Eric Wert (HF Vol, 32), Erin Kendig, Esao Andrews (HF Vol. 8), Helen Bayly, Jeff Soto (HF Vol. 18), Jonathan Viner (HF Vol. 34), Kazuki Takamatsu (HF Vol. 33 cover artist), Lauren Marx, Laurie Lee Brom, Lowell Poisson, Marco Mazzoni (HF Vol. 20 cover artit), Peter Ferguson, Ryan Heshka, Sam Wolfe Connelly (HF Vol. 32), Scott Hove (HF Collected 3), and Tyna Ontko.
Our next print issue of Hi-Fructose New Contemporary Art Magazine (which arrives in July) features a beautiful cover and feature and a beautifully-printed special 16-page insert by Travis Louie, we chase clouds with the murals and art of Sainer and the ETAM CRU, discover the animal portraits of Susan Siegel, Andy Gilmore's hallucinatory graphics, Eric Wert's intense still-lives, Shawn Huckins's modern painted text messaging meets old masters mash-ups, painter Casey Weldon's bright and bold surreal works, Mark Gmehling's 3D distortions, and a major feature on the art of Sam Wolfe Connelly! Plus we journey into hell in with a new stereoscopic book review and take a look at Dima Drjuchin's Lil Goof and more! Pre-order a copy today! See more sneak peeks of the issue after the jump.