Art Basel selections

from American Art Collector, Issue #62, December 2010

For the second time this year, 101/exhibit in Miami, Florida, and the Richard Demato Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York, have pooled their talents to put together a group show set to open the week of Art Basel in Miami.

Promising to repeat the success of their summer show in the Hamptons, this collaborative effort will feature the works of Phillip Thomas, Andrea Kowch, Amy Sherald and Haley Hasler from the Demato Gallery and Marcus Jansen, David Bowers, Isabelle du Toit and Charles Pfahl from 101/exhibit.

101/exhibit is located in the heart of Miami’s design district and is owned by Sloan Schaffer, who curated this group exhibition with Richard Demato. After only two years of operation, the gallery has become a significant player in the Miami art world and organized this special show to run concurrently with all the Miami art fairs.

David Bowers lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has taught at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He gave up a successful career in illustration to pursue his fine art.

“My subjects are usually figurative and allegorical,” says Bowers. “My ideas just come out of the blue and I never have a direction when I first sit down. I see something, maybe an antique story or something on television, and then just go with it. But, for me, the idea has to come out of the blue. I do seem to paint mainly women, though, in these little scenarios.”

Charles Pfahl has taught at the Arts Student League in New York City and has shown work at Altitude Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Gerald Peters Gallery in New York City. Revolution was inspired by the artist’s wish to paint “a large, bright canvas—concentrating on the hot cadmium colors.” His orange and red compositions of industrial molds found on eBay appear to be the objects themselves floating on the wall.

Haley Hasler’s paintings are self-portraits done as a character in order to question the ability of the artist to represent both their internal and external selves in a painting. “Through a seemingly private investigation of self-portraiture and autobiographical narrative, I hope to portray a compelling fictive world, presided over by a figure who is both autobiographical portrait and archetypal heroine,” says Hasler, “whose realm hovers between banal and ethereal, past and present.”

Andrea Kowch’s paintings are meant to compel the viewer to engage directly in them.

“The stories and inspiration behind my paintings stem from life’s emotions and experiences, resulting in narrative, allegorical imagery that illustrates the parallels between human experience and the mysteries of the natural world,” says Kowch.

Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 and filed under Andrea Kowch, News Blog.