Belknap and Covi Galleries, Allen R. Hite
Art Institute
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY
502-852-6794
http://art.louisville.edu/
Mark Priest: Women and
Men of the Railroad
February 16 - March 15, 2001
Mark Priest's paintings
are intensely focused portrayals of human activity invariably remembered
from firsthand 
experience.
Whether he himself has actually lived the experience (as in the scenes depicting
railroad repair work, which he did for some seven years of his life) or
only observed it, the paintings provide a direct and immediate appeal to
our emotions. What gives them such directness in the first place certainly
is due to the way Priest brings the action right up to the front. Like Goya,
he makes the viewer feel himself or herself at the very threshold of the
action-close enough to be able to feel its heat and passion but not so close
as to be lost in it. Secondly, Priest laces tangible matter, the human figures
and the essential objects of their setting and activity, into patterns that
allow little or no escape into empty space.
(left: The Track Worker, 6 x 8 inches, 2001)
Even the limited spaces that are present to clarify the
contextual relationships of the figures and their actions, are themselves
animated as if in response to the activity depicted. In the third place,
Priest does not linger over details. He subordinates details in favor of
the broad forms or so successfully sweeps them out of sight into the ever-pressing
rhythms of the composition that we don't even miss them. In the end, the
tensions and dramatic effects of limbs, torsos and incidentals of setting
bound together into tightly closed configurations are fortified by a strong
contrasts of color and of light and dark. (right: Two Track Repair
Women, 70 x 96 inches, 1999)
Dario Covi, Curator
Read more about the Belknap
and Covi Galleries, Allen R. Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville
in Resource Library Magazine
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experience.
Whether he himself has actually lived the experience (as in the scenes depicting
railroad repair work, which he did for some seven years of his life) or
only observed it, the paintings provide a direct and immediate appeal to
our emotions. What gives them such directness in the first place certainly
is due to the way Priest brings the action right up to the front. Like Goya,
he makes the viewer feel himself or herself at the very threshold of the
action-close enough to be able to feel its heat and passion but not so close
as to be lost in it. Secondly, Priest laces tangible matter, the human figures
and the essential objects of their setting and activity, into patterns that
allow little or no escape into empty space.
(left: The Track Worker, 6 x 8 inches, 2001)