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Maine Magazine
AGENDA
November-December 2009
by: Kristen Andresen Lainsbury
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Tom Burckhardt’s “Book
Covers” and Christopher Keister’s “Cosmic Lollipop” at Aucocisco Galleries
in November
PORTLAND, MAINE—The painter and sculptor Tom Burckhardt may have been born
in New York, but his Maine roots run deep. A 1986 graduate of the
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Burckhardt now splits his time
between his home in New York City and a home in Searsmont, Maine.
Aucocisco Galleries is honored to announce “Book Covers,” the first Maine
showing of Burckhardt’s work in more than a decade and a half. This fact
alone is cause for celebration.
Showing simultaneously with Burckhardt, Aucocisco will feature a series of
minimalist circle paintings by Peaks Island-based artist Christopher
Keister entitled “Cosmic Lollipop.” Like Burckhardt, Keister also attended
the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Keister’s entrancing paintings will create a conversation between the
formal and informal aspects of his and Burckhardt’s work.
For Burckhardt, “Book Covers” marks a return of sorts to painting. Most
recently, his shows in New York City have played at mixing the
two-dimensional with three-dimensional components:
Burckhardt’s 2006 show “Full Stop” found the artist working exclusively
with cardboard and black paint to create full-scale replicas of an
artist’s studio. In 2008, Burckhardt continued to explore this theme with
“Slump,” pairing his paintings with meticulously built three-dimensional
sculptural vignettes of items commonly found in an artists’ studio, such
as paint cans, crates, and ladders.
At the time, Burckhardt explained these sculptural excursions as a way to
“reignite my love of the act of painting.” With “Book Covers,”
Burckhardt’s passion for painting appears fully ablaze.
The thirteen vibrant paintings in the series manage to feel both playful
and considered. Each acrylic and colored pencil piece is executed on the
inside of actual reclaimed book cover. Burckhardt’s gift for colliding
representational components with purely graphic elements is in peak form
and , as usual, the work eludes any easy pigeonholing—we only see glimpses
of influence: swirls from Surrealism, exaggerated Pop Art dots and
stripes, and nods to the New York School and to the minimalists. Ripe with
references to artist’s palettes and blank canvases, “Book Covers” feels
like Burckhardt’s love letters to the act of painting.
The recipient of many awards, Burckhardt has twice received grants from
the Pollack-Krasner Foundatin, and was just recently awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship. He is the son of revered artists Yvonne Jacquette and Rudy
Burckhardt.
Keister continues to gain attention and significant praise for his
hypnotic paintings. He has become a regular, stalwart contributor to two
of Maine’s most praised exhibitions: the Portland Museum of Art Biennial
(2003, 2007), and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art Juried Biennial
Exhibition (2004, 2008).
The series “Cosmic Lollipop” reflects the influence that reading science
fiction literature has had on Keister over the past year. “The information
gathered from such written material came to act as an outline for the
series,” says the artist. “I view the drawings as maps and representations
of concepts that I encountered in the texts.”
In addition to “Cosmic Lollipop,” Keister is also currently appearing in a
successful group installation, “Point of Connection,” in the North Dam in
Biddeford; the project was made possible by the Maine Arts Commission.
Tom Burckhardt “Book Covers”
&
Christopher Keister “Cosmic Lollipop”
Reception: Friday, November 6, 5:00 – 8:00 PM
Showing: November 6 - November 28, 2009
Contact:
Aucocisco Galleries
Andres A. Verzosa
Owner/Director
Physical: 89 Exchange Street
P.O Box 4111
Portland, ME 04101
Mail: P.O. Box 7897
Portland, Maine 04112
Phone: 207.775.2222
Email: director@aucocisco.com
Website: www.aucocisco.com
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00am to 6:00pm, and by appointment.
April 4, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Richard Baker & Tom
Burckhardt
Book Covers
April 23 – May 22,
2009
Tibor de Nagy Gallery is
please to present a two person exhibition featuring works on paper by
Richard Baker and paintings by Tom Burckhardt. Both artists employ book
covers as the basis for their works, but to very different ends.
Tom Burckhardt repurposes
old book covers and uses them to paint on. His paintings are mostly
abstract with figurative elements including tracings of his hand and the
outlines of artist’s palettes. Some of the pieces incorporate elements of
the book covers, using details as compositional elements. In some he has
used the front and back of the book covers to create diptychs.
Richard Baker has painted
actual size interpretations of paperback book covers, including classic
titles mostly from the 1950s to the 1960s including William Faulkner,
Virginia Wolf, and Franz Kafka, among others. He includes the details of
not only the images themselves but also the wear and tear of the years, by
capturing every crease, splotch or imperfection. He also includes the
spine of the books in perspective, which not only depicts the books as
objects, but also creates the illusion of space around the books.
Richard Baker has exhibited
widely throughout the United States. He attended the School of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston and the Maryland Institute, College of Art,
Baltimore. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards
including the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and the New England
Foundation for the Arts Grant.
Tom Burckhardt has had many
one-person exhibitions, including Full Stop, presented at The
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut in 2006. He is the recipient
of numerous awards including the International Association of Art Critics
Award, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the Academy
of Arts and Letters, and two Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grants.
For additional information or visuals
please contact the gallery at 212.262.5050
Upcoming
Exhibition: Larry Rivers: 1950s/1960s, May 28 – July 31, 2009
October 2009
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