Brooklyn, NY (August 10, 2012) -
Converge Gallery
and OfficeOps are pleased to announce their latest show Underground, a
series of works by Matthew Rose, New York artists Rick Prol, Mike
Cockrill and Jeffrey Allen Price, Kansas City, MO artist Tyler Coey,
Vancouver, Canada artist Chris Brett, Chicago, IL artist Matthew Ryan
Sharp, Oakland, CA artist Yosiell Lorenzo, Williamsport, PA artists Seth
Goodman, Liz Parrish, Jeremiah Johnson, and Tim Miller, Northampton, MA
artist Rick Beaupre and Dean Landry.
“As artists,
we’re all constantly struggling to remain relevant, grow and evolve
aesthetically. This is a process that is ongoing… the ‘cup’ will never
be full. We will continue to do this and strive for growth until the day
we are no more. There is always a ‘NEXT BIG THING’ and many of us do
not fit this mold. – Matthew Ryan Sharp
The show,
‘Underground,’ is located in the Office Ops building, 57 Thames Street,
Second Floor, Brooklyn, NY on August 10, 2012 from 5-9pm.
About the Artists
Matthew Rose is an American artist living and working in Paris, France. Known
for his collage work and large scale installations of his work, as well
as the global art project A Book About Death, he graduated Brown
University with a degree in semiotics and linguistics (1981). His works
are widely collected Europe and the US and are in both public and
private collections.
Rick Prol is an ‘80s East Village
icon whose work features cartoonish mayhem, death and suicide in
dilapidated and decaying settings. He dabbles in a variety of media
including – installations, paintings, sculpture and drawings. Much of
the inspiration for Prol’s work stems from general childhood trauma.
Cartoon expressionism was the language he wanted to use to convey his
organic, personal experiences about life. He pulls from the urban
realities of city life; brutality, authoritarian relationships, decay
and destruction of the world around him, and more recently the Occupy
Wall Street movement.
Mike Cockrill is a figurative
painter who recently announced that he was having a “Modern Breakdown”
and began posted a series of photos of himself in his studio working in a
radically new direction. Girls and women with fragmented faces and
1950’s hairdos, and other almost tribal works in which the female is
merged with the clown and stacked like totems. Story telling was gone.
So were the shades of Norman Rockwell.
Jeffrey Allen
Price is a multi-media and interdisciplinary installation artist. His
work often alludes to natural processes such as growth and decay and
ultimately comments on consumerism and materialistic culture. His work
is often process-based and accumulative, humorous and playful. His works
have been shown internationally and have been features in The New York
Times and on the Food Network.
Tyler Coey is a Kansas
City artist whose pieces combine the brush work and technique of
traditional painting with contemporary subjects and icons. Attention was
quickly directed to the local gallery scene, which in turn lead to
national and international exhibitions.
Chris Brett is
an artist from Vancouver, Canada who utilizes mixed media to create his
works. His work is influenced by graffiti, children’s books, and
cartoons. He uses rich colors and dark tones to express themes of love,
lust, nature and heartbreak.
Matthew Ryan Sharp is a
Chicago-based artist whose work is loaded with people we all know to
some degree, sharing a colorful and lighthearted view into the American
soul. His images can exist in opposition between the subject and
statement, the irony painted on found object canvases. He offers truth
in these images, a reflection of our own humanity laced with sarcasm and
humor. He does it in brutal cartoonish fervor.
Yosiell
Lorenzo is a California-based artist whose work appears to be whimsical
and free-spirited but when you look deeper at his work you see sadness
and longing. He utilizes many different mediums in his works including:
sculpture, ink, graphite, digital vector art, and paints. Recently he
was a featured artist in Pixar Times and has shown his work in
Gallery1988.
Rick Beaupre is a Massachusetts surrealist
artist whose pieces utilize acrylic and oil paints as well as pencil
sketches, charcoals, casein (which is a quick drying, aqueous medium
which uses a milk-based binding agent), and watercolors.
Seth
Goodman began thinking about class and wealth disparities at an early
age growing up in Ballston Spa, New York, the blue-collar ugly stepchild
to the next town over, high-rolling Saratoga Springs. His works are
reflective of what he witness while growing up and as shocking as they
may seem to some, to others they are the people living in the trailer
next door.
Liz Parrish is a Pennsylvania native who
draws inspiration from her surroundings, the people she cares about,
ill-tempered animals, and abandoned places. She utilizes acrylics, pen
and ink on wood. Her works are whimsically grotesque and feature
distorted yet almost adorable creatures of her own creation.
Jeremiah
Johnson is a Pennsylvania native whose pieces include works on paper
inspired by dreams, visions, experimentations, and life, handmade,
original decorative prints and paintings, drawings, and works inspired
by the current state of healthcare in America. His work is part of
several public and private collections including The State Museum of
Pennsylvania, Lock Haven University, Susquehanna Health, University of
Chicago, Syracuse University, and Temple University.
Tim
Miller is a Pennsylvania native whose pieces include 3-D works, which
include ideas of love, life, loss, and luck permeate the work and in its
finished state will form a seamless timeline where each piece holds its
individual space in time while still being a part of an integrated
whole. The 88 is an ongoing project that will consist of 88 different
works with a common background and each piece measuring 8"x 8".
About OfficeOps
OfficeOps
is an arts performance and production center. The second floor is the
primary space for events, rehearsals, classes, and management of
OfficeOps. It is laid out over a 15,000 square foot converted factory
floor with space for any number of arts and culture related activities.
Based on Brooklyn, NY, Office Ops is located at 57 Thames Street, Second
Floor, Brooklyn, NY. For more information, please call: 718-418-2509,
or visit:
http://www.officeops.org/.
About Converge Gallery
Converge
Gallery exhibits a variety of fine contemporary art (photography,
paintings, mixed media, sculpture, installations and drawings). The
gallery represents the talents of many artists local and non-native,
emerging and established. Based in historic downtown Williamsport, PA,
Converge Gallery is located at 140 West Fourth Street. Gallery hours are
Wednesday-Friday 11am-7pm and Saturday 11am-5pm. For more
information, please call: 570-435-7080, or visit:
www.convergegallery.com or email: john@convergegallery.com.
More information here:
http://convergegallery.
