Crow's Luck
2006. oil on canvas, 54 x 60"

 

MORGAN BULKELEY: NEW PAINTINGS
May 26 - July 7
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 3rd 3 - 5 pm

For Imediate Release

Morgan Bulkeley, a respected and important painter, who has been a part of the Boston art scene for over twenty years, opens his show of recent paintings at Howard Yezerski Gallery on May 26th. The exhibition will feature five of his large-scale oil on canvas paintings as well as a selection of his paintings on paper. Drawing from personal experiences in his own life and reactions to current events in society, Bulkeley continues to create a world where Nature and civilization often clash.

In his essay for the catalog Post Shopping Wink, Geoffrey Young discusses how "Morgan Bulkeley's pictures are plausible fictions, fantasies in condensed form linking his great, robust feeling for the environment to the vagaries of his own personal life". The tension between civilization and nature carries from one painting to the next. In Bulkeley's paradise, brightly colored landscapes with crisply painted leaves, and idyllic rolling hills of green grass are dotted with bears, birds and other animals as bumbling humans fumble with primitive tools trying to connect to nature. Human life begins to encroach on nature as cars; planes and everyday icons like Campbell's soup cans, and Wrigley gum start to appear in the landscapes. A dialogue develops between nature and contemporary human civilization as Bulkeley pair's animals next to these icons to create visual puns. "Bulkeley's paintings raise the issue of our responsibility; the challenge of his work should affect the choice we make. To his great credit he gets his point across with sly humor, bold composition, a veterans touch, and masterful color."

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact Alexis Dunfee at Howard Yezerski Gallery 617.262.0550 Tuesday - Saturday 10-5:30pm