Future Anesthetics

December 15, 2016 - February 11, 2017

UniX Gallery is pleased to close out 2016 with an explosive group show, “Future Anesthetics” featuring works by gallery artists Justin Bower, Desire Obtain Cherish, Ellen de Meijer, Marcello Lo Giudice, Pino Manos, Tom McFarland, Josh Rowell, KwangHo Shin, Christian Voigt, Llewellyn Xavier, and more. The exhibition will be on view at UniX Gallery from Thursday, December 15, 2016 through February 11, 2017.

Justin Bower, known for his anonymous portraits, uses his brushstrokes to give us an understanding of an extensive subconscious reaction to technology. The fragmentation of his subjects is a reflection of today’s generational influence from technology. He intends to identify this disjunction and offer a perspective of techno-saturation.

Extending a new body of work that features large-scale paintings and photography — a significant departure for the object-oriented artist — Los Angeles based artist Desire Obtain Cherish challenges the decision-making process humans undergo while chasing the elusive state of happiness. Whether happiness is understood through finances, beauty, sex, or intelligence, Desire Obtain Cherish, is fascinated with the pursuit and decisions involved in such a journey.

Ellen de Meijer’s paintings tend to give the viewer a unique feeling of sympathetic tension and pathos, simultaneously. Her portraits show figures of successful repute, yet vulnerable with empty gazes. Ellen de Meijer’s figures are armed with digital gadgets such as Google Glasses or iPhones, which refer to our zeitgeist of access to information and power. This proliferation of technology becomes a point of dependency while our human instincts docilely move to the background.

Marcello Lo Giudice combines his knowledge of the Earth’s metamorphoses with a profound affection for organic, geological substances to create a variety of meticulously crafted paintings and sculptures. Lo Giudice composes vibrant and energetic paintings by spreading and layering colorful pigments thickly on the canvas, thus creating a coarse, haptic surface. Internationally renowned art critic and Yves Klein historian, Pierre Restany, defined Lo Giudice as an exceptional “telluric” painter. Lo Giudice has been exhibited at the main pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2011 and has a significant European and American collector base.

Working for sixty years, Pino Manos is known for his rich monochromatic works, which he embellishes with twisted strips of canvas. The addition of these matching pieces augments the canvas beyond a vehicle for the purely pictorial, opening up its sculptural possibilities. He evokes a dynamic drama with these estroflesso artworks by manipulating color, space, light, and movement across the seemingly everted canvases to create a sense of phantasmal synchronicity.

Tom McFarland melds a tradition of rugged craftsmanship, with a precise eye and intricate process to his mixed media paintings. McFarland’s mixed media works use string, hardware, resin, mesh, and acrylic paint within a geometric frame to create shadow and layered interplay between light, material, and negative space. Heavily process oriented, McFarland creates balance between heavy texture and elegant coloration to create a quizzical, idiosyncratic space for the viewer.

For his painterly works, Rowell uses acrylic on canvas to create a complex grid of language. However, his expertise translates/transcends the canvas to large-scale light installation, metal sculpture, and British currency. Rowell focuses on contemporary technological advances and their mediated effect on communication. His intricate paintings are constructed with a language based on color, pattern, and form conceived by the artist. In each, a message to decipher prompted by the title.

Evoking themes of Abstract Expressionism, Korean artist KwangHo Shin employs intense and vibrant colors to depict the individualistic expression of emotion and a sense of self. He applies charcoal and oils in thick brushstrokes to distort and exaggerate the subject’s facial features. His technique confronts the viewer with an emotional impact, affecting our understanding of the human form. Whether it is the external pose of the subject or the unique color combinations, abstraction or layered texture, the portraiture of KwangHo Shin is able to document the psychological changes and clashes that arise in us all.

Christian Voigt is a German photographer, known for his impressive images created using large-format cameras. Voigt has photographed great libraries, museums, landscapes and temples. Through his lens, Voigt captured mankind’s extraordinary buildings and architecture. The artist offers an illuminated tenor, delivering with his photography an inescapable sense of history and verve.

Renowned for using brilliant colors to reflect the light and life of the Caribbean, Llewellyn Xavier’s art serves a multiplicity of functions; philosophical as well as aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from contemporaries of American Abstract Expressionism, Xavier’s bold daring vision and grandiose gestures manifest in a boundless energy of sheer force of purpose and power. His artwork is free of restrain, creating a pure vision that is both relevant and immediate.

For more information or inquires please contact Robert Berry at robert@unixgallery.com or by phone at 212-209-1572.

Ellen de Meijer

Llewellyn Xavier

Kwangho Shin

Justin Bower

Desire Obtain Cherish

Marcello Lo Giudice

Pino Manos

Tom McFarland

Josh Rowell

Christian Voigt