Left:Kehoe, detail: Peonies (Green) 2008, oil on panel 8 x8" Middle: Bulkeley: detail: Bee #3, 2008, guache on Arches Paper 10 x 7" Right: detail: Shambroom, Jerusalem Artichoke II, 2008 oil on linen, 42 x 40"

 

Unintended Consequences

Morgan Bulkeley, Catherine Kehoe, and Donald Shambroom
May 29 - June 30th, 2009

 

For Immediate Release

 

Morgan Bulkeley is known for his paintings, sculpture and wood - carvings. Thematically his work deals with our, often, dysfunctional relationship with nature and with one another. Looking at one of Bulkeley's pieces the viewer is initially seduced by what appears to be a bright happy world. On closer Inspection we discover that under this bright veneer of color and surface things are not going so well. Limbs litter the landscape along with beer cans, packs of gum, candy and cigarettes. A bear like creature stares out at us with a portion of a human torso in its mouth. Bulkeley makes work that encourages us to ponder the human condition while at the same time captivating us with his wit, whimsy and hand.

Catherine Kehoe, who is known for her self-portraits, treats her still-lifes with the same intensity, capturing diverse textures and effects with startling economy. There is a poignant melancholy in Kehoe's work that speaks to the passage of time and memory as well as endurance and strength. A highly accomplished draftsman Kehoe combines her drawing ability with a similar mastery of the palette knife. Using knife and brush she is able to construct compelling "portraits of flowers from planes of color".

Donald Shambroom makes large scale paintings of plants at unusual, often unnoticed points in their life cycle, in spring or early fall, before or after they have flowered. He is moved by the notion of animated things coming from the inanimate, as poppies growing from the trenches of war. The paintings begin with the study of these plants, followed by their sometimes, rapid re-animation in paint, and a reinvention of their gestures, color and light. Their growth is both exuberant and unpredictable. The results are paintings that are at the same time beautiful and provocative.

 

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