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Contemporary Figurative Painting
A new exhibition at
the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, "Contemporary Figurative Painting,"
looks at 
the
resurgence in surrealist practices in contemporary figurative painting.
The exhibition, which opens Saturday, February 7, 2004 and continues through
Sunday, March 28, 2004 at the KIA, includes 23 whimsical, eye-opening works
by Ed Fraga, Barbara Thiery Buysse and Edward Monovich. (right: Edward
Monovich,"Judging Freedom," 2002, mixed media on paper)
As contemporary artists focus more and more on our fractured environment and fast-paced culture, painting has led the way in this examination, as these three artists demonstrate.
Fraga's paintings are narratives of real and dreamed scenes, composed with an eye for detail and subordination of color that refer back to the Renaissance. Many of his paintings submit to aspects of spirituality, with details taken from various religions, and their symbols and icons. Fraga has exhibited in New York and is in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Cranbrook Art Museum, as well as many public and corporate collections. He lives and works in Detroit.
Kalamazoo
artist Barbara Thiery Buysse has developed an eye for the oddities of everyday
life. Buysse captures relatives, friends and community members in a heavily
patterned and colorful world where collaged body parts, stylishly nonconforming
outfits and unnatural juxtapositions are the norm. Cosmic nerds meet California
musclemen on a beach of charged yellows, oranges and blues -- all while
having the time of their lives, being in a place they should not be. Where
dream meets reality, Buysse does not sympathize, but elates in this party
of opposites. (left: Barbara Thiery Buysse, "Dogma," 1998,
oil on board)
Edward Monovich has, for the past decade, focused on paintings
and drawings that examine national 
identity, privilege and entitlement in a context
of social, economic and physical violence. Images collide within each composition,
creating a surreal relationship of scale, proportion and dream reality.
Monovich, a native of Michigan, was schooled at the University of Texas,
and now lives and works in New Jersey, exhibiting there and in New York
City. (right: Barbara Thiery Buysse, "Wingback Woes," 1999,
mixed media on paper)
The KIA also offers two free programs connected to this exhibition.
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