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| Jeff Myers, Out to Paster/The Family Farm, oil on canvas, 2011 |
Sacramento holds a strong tradition of painting linked to many esteemed local artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, Gregory Kondos, and, their
younger, Fred Dalkey. The vast California landscape has been and continues to
be a spring of inspiration for many of these artistic figures. The art
of Jeff Myers follows along these traditions of heightened color to render the
paysage however he disrupts the playful plasticity with grim undertones.
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| Jeff Myers, Field Boss, oil on canvas, 2011 |
A recent series of paintings from 2011 by Jeff Myers is
currently on view at the new and spacious Alex Bult Gallery. Myers does not
address social tensions through humor as many Funk artists did, instead he
alludes to social issues through a strategy to captivate with color in order to tell the real story. Out to
Pasture/The Family Farm is a large canvas
of two mechanical harvesters propped up against a flat, white toned background.
The machines’ shadows and low landscape serve as a division within the
composition to reveal a staggering city as the undercurrent of industrial
agriculture. One of these harvesters is featured in Field Boss as the imposing structure that looms and
overshadows field workers below. Myers rendered the harvester with a
bright palette, centrally placed on the canvas, modeling the formidable giant with intense greens and blues. The machine is celebrated in this
composition, highlighting technology and the belief that modern advancements were
to liberate humanity from laborious hardships. Yet Myers notes the failure of the
utopian ideal, as the ghostly images of anonymous figures laboring below are further
enslaved into the repetitiveness of our mechanized world.
The painting tradition proves to be an effective format for
continual conversation within our contemporary times, a medium that satisfies our
interest in color, the technique of facture and form, and our insatiable
appetite to dialogue on canvas.
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| Christopher Taggart, Pigberry (for Sizemore), archival inkject on polyester, various mechanical parts, motor, water, sports ball, ink, 2011 |
Hybrid Art
Some inquiring minds outside the art field occasionally ask
how contemporary art is representative of our moment, which is characterized by
technology. The truth of the matter is that artists working with a
variety of technological media are too often over-looked by the average
individual that has not had a thorough introduction in art appreciation. In
other words, technological art is not immediately accessible (conceptually) to
the average viewer, particularly in places like Sacramento where the traditions
of painting and sculpture continue as the dominant art forms. The Center for
Contemporary Arts offers a refreshing alternative with the exhibition Time
Fugitives featuring the work of Christopher
Taggart.
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| Pigberry (for Sizemore), detail |
The exhibition displays an array of media employed by the
artist from video, photos, motors, drawing, mirrors, even water. The most
striking two-dimensional objects are the photo collages. Taggart meticulously cuts
a series of photographs and pieces them together. The fragmented
photos appear as a woven mosaic of the subject, creating a pixalized image that
distorts and renders unexpected patterns. One of the most challenging pieces that
can be appreciated is Pigberry, an
inflatable football (or object inspired by a football) that demonstrates the
artist’s background in physics. Taggart carefully plotted focal points upon the
football model. He photographed these sections, printed the images on
polyester, cut triangles along the plotted points and sewed them together. He
created a water pump to inflate his reconstituted football, creating a final
object that morphed into a distinct form of its own.
Taggart's painstaking processes may come across as over-the-top however his art satisfies the curiosity of reconstructing our world, researching and creating new ways to interpret our environment. He applies rigorous systems that allow for a surprise effect, that even the artist does not foresee the end result.
