contemporary art salon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EXHIBITION: JON COFFELT AND MATTHEW CHOBERKA|TWO COLORISTS
Dates:
December 4 - December 19, 2009
Reception: Friday, December 4: 3 pm-8 pm
THE LIVINGROOM is proud to present, Two Colorists, its inaugural two-person exhibition featuring new works by Jon Coffelt, a New York conceptual artist, and Matthew Choberka, a Utah abstract painter.
Jon Coffelt is showing his duct-tape on Tyvek paintings from his "Circuitry" series as well as selected pieces of scaled-down clothing from his "Memory Clothing" series. Within the two large-scale duct-tape paintings, the artist combines his fascination with mapmaking/geography, computer motherboards, and the idea of social networking using "postmodern" colors. Also these works reflect a nearly perfect obsession with the idea of craft under the illusion of the machine-made as well as a cataloguing of unique patterns and colors that capture the artist's own preferences of unusual color combinations and linear forms paralleling a new media version of Mondrian. Coffelt's continual examination of the idea of a handmade object under the guise of the machine-created is the focus of the seemingly autobiographical memory clothes. These miniature outfits, as a form of conceptual fiber art, are designed to be cherished items from a personal moment of history that demonstrate the conflict between public and private histories. Essentially, the memory clothing are a visual counterpoint of individual history to the duct-tape paintings which symbolize societal history. Coffelt's mastery of color shows that patterns of these hues and tints reflect interior design principles.
Matthew Choberka, an experimental abstract painter, refines his interest in the concept of pattern within architecture and tapestries towards the social and psychological history of today's citizens in our urban environments. In his thrilling style, the artist expresses a masterful confidence in depicting the dichotomy between organic and geometric painting that hearkens to the "conflict" between abstract expressionism and geometric minimalism during the 1960's. Moving away from the idea of traditional perspective, Choberka's works splash with bursting colors within the viewer's eyes in terms of risky configurations of free form mark-making that plays around the rules of composition.
Both Coffelt and Choberka do not use patterns and offbeat colors as a form of mere decoration but as well-formulated statements of historical painting. Through these intersecting lines, art as a form of engineering melding abstract and social references to computers, the Internet, and social networking become more evident with each "reading" of these works as a whole.
Jon Coffelt, a conceptual artist living in the Financial District of New York City, was born in 1963. He has exhibited internationally in various places including Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery, Solomon Projects, Susan Hensel Gallery, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Pentimenti Gallery, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and various art fairs. He is currently the curator at Central Booking, a Brooklyn gallery devoted to artist's books.
Matthew Choberka, who works as an assistant professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, was born in 1969. His work has been displayed in many venues including the Central Utah Art Center, Finch Lane Gallery, the Salt Lake Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Sofa Gallery.
THE LIVINGROOM is a contemporary art salon devoted to conceptual projects founded by Salt Lake City artists Julie Dunker and qi peng. The space is located in the Holladay district at 2105 Fardown Avenue. The hours are Friday, 3pm-6pm; Saturday, 10am-3pm; and by appointment. For more information, call (505) 228-1268 or email: [email protected].
EXHIBITION: JON COFFELT AND MATTHEW CHOBERKA|TWO COLORISTS
Dates:
December 4 - December 19, 2009
Reception: Friday, December 4: 3 pm-8 pm
THE LIVINGROOM is proud to present, Two Colorists, its inaugural two-person exhibition featuring new works by Jon Coffelt, a New York conceptual artist, and Matthew Choberka, a Utah abstract painter.
Jon Coffelt is showing his duct-tape on Tyvek paintings from his "Circuitry" series as well as selected pieces of scaled-down clothing from his "Memory Clothing" series. Within the two large-scale duct-tape paintings, the artist combines his fascination with mapmaking/geography, computer motherboards, and the idea of social networking using "postmodern" colors. Also these works reflect a nearly perfect obsession with the idea of craft under the illusion of the machine-made as well as a cataloguing of unique patterns and colors that capture the artist's own preferences of unusual color combinations and linear forms paralleling a new media version of Mondrian. Coffelt's continual examination of the idea of a handmade object under the guise of the machine-created is the focus of the seemingly autobiographical memory clothes. These miniature outfits, as a form of conceptual fiber art, are designed to be cherished items from a personal moment of history that demonstrate the conflict between public and private histories. Essentially, the memory clothing are a visual counterpoint of individual history to the duct-tape paintings which symbolize societal history. Coffelt's mastery of color shows that patterns of these hues and tints reflect interior design principles.
Matthew Choberka, an experimental abstract painter, refines his interest in the concept of pattern within architecture and tapestries towards the social and psychological history of today's citizens in our urban environments. In his thrilling style, the artist expresses a masterful confidence in depicting the dichotomy between organic and geometric painting that hearkens to the "conflict" between abstract expressionism and geometric minimalism during the 1960's. Moving away from the idea of traditional perspective, Choberka's works splash with bursting colors within the viewer's eyes in terms of risky configurations of free form mark-making that plays around the rules of composition.
Both Coffelt and Choberka do not use patterns and offbeat colors as a form of mere decoration but as well-formulated statements of historical painting. Through these intersecting lines, art as a form of engineering melding abstract and social references to computers, the Internet, and social networking become more evident with each "reading" of these works as a whole.
Jon Coffelt, a conceptual artist living in the Financial District of New York City, was born in 1963. He has exhibited internationally in various places including Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery, Solomon Projects, Susan Hensel Gallery, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Pentimenti Gallery, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and various art fairs. He is currently the curator at Central Booking, a Brooklyn gallery devoted to artist's books.
Matthew Choberka, who works as an assistant professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, was born in 1969. His work has been displayed in many venues including the Central Utah Art Center, Finch Lane Gallery, the Salt Lake Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Sofa Gallery.
THE LIVINGROOM is a contemporary art salon devoted to conceptual projects founded by Salt Lake City artists Julie Dunker and qi peng. The space is located in the Holladay district at 2105 Fardown Avenue. The hours are Friday, 3pm-6pm; Saturday, 10am-3pm; and by appointment. For more information, call (505) 228-1268 or email: [email protected].
