Claire Kirkup

Fall for

2021

Karen Silve developed an interest in Post-Impressionist and Fauvist painting, and they informed her early figurative abstractions. She studied in the graduate painting and design programs at the University of Denver, creating abstract work that was inspired by the landscape and by the color lessons she learned in France. Later, the Abstract Expressionist painters Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, and the German artist Gerhard Richter became important influences on her work. In 1993, Silve moved to Portland, Oregon, worked in graphic design and began to explore painterly process in a series of meditative paintings. In the late 1990s, she created two extended groups of paintings, first the Musician Series, and then the Cellist Series. Both series focused on players with their instrument, and on a feeling for music expressed through abstracting the human figure, gestural brush strokes and vibrant color. After this she moved on to rhythmic, calligraphic brush strokes and drips of paint. Evolving from this period is the ongoing series of abstract paintings that Silve continues to create. Silve has exhibited her work extensively in solo exhibitions including at the Portland Performing Arts Center, the Forsyth Center Gallery at Texas A&M University, the Visual Art Center of Northwest Florida, the Tuscaloosa Performing Arts Center and the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. Group exhibitions include those at The Institute for American Universities, Aix-in-Provence, France, the Jemison-Carnegie Heritage Hall...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Michael Nelson Tjakamarra (also cited as: Michael Nelson Jagamarra, or Jakamara) is a Senior Warlpiri Tribesman and an Elder of the Papunya Community in central Australia. Born c. 1949 at Pikilyi, Vaughan Springs west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory, he grew up ‘in the bush’. His father was an important tribal elder and medicine man at Yuendumu. It was therefore automatic that he would grow up with the traditional values and knowledge that now influences his paintings. Michael lived at Haasts Bluff until his parents took him to Yuendumu for European education at the mission school. He left school at thirteen, after initiation, and worked at buffalo shooting, driving trucks, droving cattle and in the army, before returning to Yuendumu and then to Papunya to settle in 1976. He worked for a time in the Government store and for the Council. Michael learned to paint at Papunya by observing the senior men such as Billy Stockman and Old Mick Tjakamarra. Although he was tutored by his uncle, Jack Tjupurrula, Michael developed his own style and began painting earnestly from 1983. Michael is known as master desert painter for his depiction of several Dreamings in one painting. For him the understanding of the Dreaming stories that go with his paintings is all important – without the stories his paintings would ‘mean nothing’ as far as he is concerned. His Dreamings include the Possum, Snake, Two Kangaroos, Rock Wallaby, Bush Banana, Honey Ant and Yam. In 1984 Michael won the National Aboriginal Art Award with his painting ‘Three Dreamings’. His reputation as a painter rose rapidly after this. He exhibited his work in the 1986 Biennale of Sydney and featured in ‘The State of the Art’, a British art documentary. In 1987 Michael had been asked to paint a major work (27’long) to decorate the foyer of Sydney’s Opera House and he chose to paint his ‘Possum Dreaming’ story. A great highlight in Michael’s career was in 1988 when he was commissioned to design a 196 sq-metre mosaic in the main forecourt of Australia’s new Parliament House in Canberra. The work was based on his ‘Kangaroo and Emu’ dreaming. Michael was presented to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11...

Michael Nelson Tjakamarra (also cited as: Michael Nelson Jagamarra, or Jakamara) is a Senior Warlpiri Tribesman and an Elder of the Papunya Community in central Australia. Born c. 1949 at Pikilyi, Vaughan Springs west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory, he grew up ‘in the bush’. His father was an important tribal elder and medicine man at Yuendumu. It was therefore automatic that he would grow up with the traditional values and knowledge that now influences his paintings. Michael lived at Haasts Bluff until his parents took him to Yuendumu for European education at the mission school. He left school at thirteen, after initiation, and worked at buffalo shooting, driving trucks, droving cattle and in the army, before returning to Yuendumu and then to Papunya to settle in 1976. He worked for a time in the Government store and for the Council. Michael learned to paint at Papunya by observing the senior men such as Billy Stockman and Old Mick Tjakamarra. Although he was tutored by his uncle, Jack Tjupurrula, Michael developed his own style and began painting earnestly from 1983. Michael is known as master desert painter for his depiction of several Dreamings in one painting. For him the understanding of the Dreaming stories that go with his paintings is all important – without the stories his paintings would ‘mean nothing’ as far as he is concerned. His Dreamings include the Possum, Snake, Two Kangaroos, Rock Wallaby, Bush Banana, Honey Ant and Yam. In 1984 Michael won the National Aboriginal Art Award with his painting ‘Three Dreamings’. His reputation as a painter rose rapidly after this. He exhibited his work in the 1986 Biennale of Sydney and featured in ‘The State of the Art’, a British art documentary. In 1987 Michael had been asked to paint a major work (27’long) to decorate the foyer of Sydney’s Opera House and he chose to paint his ‘Possum Dreaming’ story. A great highlight in Michael’s career was in 1988 when he was commissioned to design a 196 sq-metre mosaic in the main forecourt of Australia’s new Parliament House in Canberra. The work was based on his ‘Kangaroo and Emu’ dreaming. Michael was presented to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11...

Archaic Hercules Skinning a Rabbit, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 53.14 H x 55.11 W in. 135 H x 140 W cm In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and his numerous far-ra...

'Sapphire Sea Spruce' is an excellent example of the paintings of Daniel Klewer, coming from his series 'Linear Tactility.' The paintings in this series all share a consistent, linea...

“Walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time” is a 30 x 40 inch multimedia painting by Frantz Lexy. This landscape shows a green mountain with a rocky brown and beige summit. The...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY “Roxbury” is a stunning landscape of architecture and city deleterious. Moon-Joo Lee received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Department of Painting in 2003 and received the schools' Top Prize with this painting. “Roxbury” subsequently was on display at Chrysler’s World Headquarters for a period of time. While at Cranbrook she began to document the ubiquitous construction sites skirting Detroit and similar cities across the country. The transitory urban fabric became her compelling subject, emblematic of fluctuating socio-economic conditions and a widespread culture of uncertainty. - Joe Houston of Cranbrook Art Museum. Lee’s painting “Roxbury” captures the cycle of construction, destruction and reconstruction that perpetually transforms the American city scene. In this image, a business that boasts NEW in its signage is already in the process of being destroyed. This could be a scene of bombing or environmental damage, but per Moon-Joo Lee’s aesthetics, the mountainous terrain of assorted refuse is there to remind the viewer that perhaps new and better do not necessarily mean that nor do they guarantee positive change. Lee's contemporary landscape underscores the extent to which nature has been supplanted by a manufactured environment, portraying rampant cultural transformation as a modern expression of manifest destiny. Moon-Joo Lee is one of the many well-known artists who attended The Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, that was designed by architect and faculty member, Eliel Saarinen who collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames on chair and furniture design. It is the country’s top ranked, graduate-only program in architecture, design and fine art. Each year, just 75 students are invited to study and live on the landmark Saarinen-designed campus which features: private studios, state-of-the art workshops, the renowned Cranbrook Art Museum and 300 acres of forests, lakes and streams, all a short drive from the city of Detroit. The focus at Cranbrook is on studio practice in one of ten disciplines including Architecture, 2D and 3D Design, Ceramics, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media, and Sculpture. The program is anchored by celebrated Artists- and Designers-in-Residence, one for each discipline, all of whom live and practice on campus alongside the graduate students. Numerous creative artists who are alumni of Cranbrook include: Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, Jack Lenor Larsen, Donald Lipski, Duane Hanson, Nick Cave, Hani Rashid, George Nelson, Urban Jupena (Nationally recognized fiber artist), Artis Lane (the first African-American artist to have her sculpture, "Sojourner Truth," commissioned for the Emancipation Hall in the Capital Visitor Center in Washington DC), Cory Puhlman (televised Pastry Chef extraordinaire), Thom O’Connor (Lithographs), Paul Evans (Brutalist-inspired sculpted metal furnishings), Eugene Caples (small bronze images/abstract), Morris Brose (Bronze Sculptures), Herb Babcock (blown glass), Larry Butcher (mixed media), Lauren Anais Hussey (Abstract), Andrea Eis (film, photography), Lilian Swann Saarinen (Sculpture), Douglas Semivan...