Tag: Michael Bevilacqua

Michael Bevilacqua

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GERING & LóPEZ GALLERY is pleased to present Placebo Effect, an exhibition of new paintings on linen by New York based artist Michael Bevilacqua. This will be Bevilacqua’s second solo exhibit with the gallery. This exhibition, radically different from his last at the gallery, is much more minimal, starkly showcasing his technical and conceptual skill as a painter.

Contrary to popular trends in art and art theory, Bevilacqua is not afraid to admit that he is an autobiographical artist. Each painting is a series of diary entries, painted and repainted as he explores and reflects on the world around him. Each work starts with a song, the soundtrack of Bevilacqua’s life at that given moment of creative production. These works display clear references to the bands the Ramones, Gorillaz, and Placebo, through lyrical text often scrawled graffiti-style across the canvas or in cutout block lettering. The textual component interacts with abstracted cartoon characters and objects, forcing the viewer to oscillate between background and foreground. Through this visual language, Bevilacqua weaves his personal narratives, stories and emotions that under- and overlap each other in the layers of screenprinting, stencils, and free hand acrylic brushstrokes.

Bevilacqua further deviates from the contemporary status quo of a Neo-Modernist approach to the picture plane with his vibrant use of color, which simultaneously intertwines multiple painting techniques across the canvas, stretching our conventional notion of collage. He creates a myriad of surfaces all functioning within the confines of a single plane, similar to the way we open endless windows on our computer screens. These multiple layers of color, technique, and references provide the eye with many opportunities to wander, but there is no resolution.

The complexity and depth of this work relates directly to the artist as a person. He is exploring issues of self, family, art, and the co-existing roles he must play as well as the power the practice of painting has over these internal struggles. This leads to his enigmatic title, Placebo Effect. A clear reference to the music group, the title can have multiple secondary metaphorical interpretations. Bevilacqua could be feeding himself this sugar pill, pouring his life onto an inanimate piece of stretched linen as a form of therapeutic relief, or he could be serving it to the viewer, the voyeur. He has lived this, and your viewing experience is merely a “placebo effect” of Michael Bevilacqua’s life.

Michael Bevilacqua was born in Carmel, California in 1966. He attended Long Beach State University and Santa Barbara City College, later continuing his studies at the Cambridge College of Art and Technology in Great Britain. Bevilacqua has exhibited internationally including solo shows in Beijing, Copenhagen, Milan, Tokyo, Madrid, Barcelona, and New York. He has also exhibited in group shows at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece; The Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; and The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT. His work is in numerous public collections including The Mitsuni Collection, Tokyo, Japan; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX.


GERING & LóPEZ GALLERY

No Vacancy” @ The Butcher’s Daughter “No Vacancy”

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The Butcher’s Daughter is proud to present “No Vacancy” curated by Valaire Van Slyck. Opening January 9, 2010, this group exhibition features over twenty world-renown emergent and mid-career contemporary artists from around the country.

From the curatorial statement by Valaire Van Slyck,
“The exhibition “No Vacancy” explores the impulse that gives rise to art and artists’ attempts to reconcile their dissatisfaction with the world around them. The results of these efforts physically change the world, reordering it and creating points of dynamism in the environment. These points, infused with ideas and attitude, lead to a deeper consideration of thought and experience.

By bringing together many artists in a small gallery, we create a whole greater than the sum of its parts and establish a space of hyper-dynamism, a community with a multitude of perspectives. In turn, this show offers alternatives to the prevailing modes of relating to the world around us – a cacophony of possibility and hope. There is no vacancy in art.”

Featured artists include Michael Anderson, Sam Bassett, Michael Bevilacqua, Erik den Breejen, Brock Enright, Jack Featherly, Jonah Freeman, Kate Gilmore, Andrew Guenther, Kent Henricksen, Sissel Kardel, Nicola Kuperus, Justin Lowe, Shannon Lucy, Guy Overfelt, Tyson Reeder, Zak Smith, Michael St. John, Johannes Vanderbeek, Wendy White and Sherry Wong.

These artists are represented in museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and Whitney Museum of American Art. International and national exhibitions include those at PS1/MOMA and The Sculpture Center as well as numerous independent galleries and project spaces worldwide. Other credits include editorial photography for magazines, international biennials and Time Square billboards for major multi-national corporations.
The goals of this exhibition as designed by The Butcher’s Daughter is to further expand the mission of the gallery and create an opportunity for participants to network with artists, collectors, and creative professionals. To help facilitate this an after party will follow the opening reception. Admittance is limited. Additional details will forthcoming or contact the gallery to reserve your place.

The Butcher’s Daughter is dedicated to creating innovative, cultural context for contemporary art through the representation of emerging and mid-career artists and the sale of their work.

The Butchers Daughter Gallery