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      On Vintage Objects, David Cass’s Paintings Summon the Sea

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      Work in progress for ‘Where Once the Waters.’ All images © David Cass, shared with permission

      On Vintage Objects, David Cass’s Paintings Summon the Sea

      September 5, 2024

      Art Climate

      Kate Mothes

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      For David Cass, the sea offers an endless source of wonder at its depths, history, bounty, and sometimes ferocity. Based between the Scottish Borders and Athens, the artist (previously) has long been fascinated by the power of water, especially its increasing vulnerability to the effects of the climate crisis.

      On found objects like tins and matchboxes to book pages and antique pulleys, Cass repeats motifs of waves and distant marine horizons in oil and gouache. In Light on Water, his current solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, the artist continues to address the warming and rapid rising of ocean levels around the world through paintings that hover between abstraction and representation.

      “Reach” (2022-23), oil and oil bar on primed bus blind on board, 75 x 75 centimeters

      While creating much of the work for the show at his studio in Greece, Cass considered the landscape outside—its islands and peninsulas encompassed by water. He observed how the rippling surface can transform its appearance moment by moment due to the weather or time of day. Although “a threat rests behind this mesmeric picture,” he says in a statement. “In this exhibition, light also represents heat.”

      Cass draws attention to estimates that 91 percent of Earth’s excess heat energy trapped in the climate system is stored by our oceans. As the planet continues to warm, this storage capability disappears, threatening all manner of life.

      The artist calls on a time before we were aware of climate change, evoking the Industrial Age—incidentally, the dawn of greenhouse gases—in a series of oil paintings titled 500 Years that subtly nod to the Old Masters.

      Light on Water continues through September 28 in Edinburgh. Find more on Cass’s website and Instagram.

      “September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

      “October 2017,” gouache on card

      “Pulley I – Rockport, ME” (2023-24), oil on marine pulley, 23 x 11.5 x 8 centimeters

      “500 Years (after Van Eertvelt) II” (2023-24), oil and pencil on gessoed chest panel, 22 x 29 centimeters

      “September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

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    • 125 Shares119 Views

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      Andrew Hem’s Ethereal Paintings Reflect a Sense of Endless Wonder

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      All images @ Andrew Hem, shared with permission

      Andrew Hem’s Ethereal Paintings Reflect a Sense of Endless Wonder

      September 4, 2024

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      Occupying vibrant, unearthly environments, Andrew Hem’s characters exude a sense of wonder and openness toward the world. The Los Angeles-based artist (previously) continues his fantastic, gravity-defying works that see figures float upside down or amid a sea of jellyfish. 

      Now a father of two, Hem frequently reflects on his Cambodian heritage and how he’s sharing it with his children. The artist translates his pride for his homeland into each painting, rendering figures who are re-orienting themselves in novel, dreamlike situations. The largely introspective subjects gravitate toward calm and finding joy in the simple and mundane.

      Follow Hem’s work on Instagram.

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    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Art

      Angela Fan Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

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      “White Christmas Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 40 inches. All images © Angela Fang Zirbes, shared with permission

      Angela Fan Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

      September 3, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      While preparing her undergraduate thesis exhibition at Parsons School of Design in 2022, Angela Fang Zirbes craved something different. She was working with traditional brushwork on canvas but was dissatisfied with the technique’s ability to achieve heightened contrast. Incidentally, her pet rabbit of 13 years also died that autumn.

      “She had been with me through some of my most formative years, and her death had a deep impact on me,” Fang Zirbes says. “I began thinking a lot about my upbringing and family history in Iowa, and I started working from a lot of old black-and-white family photographs as well as found imagery from around my hometown.”

      “Summer Birthday Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

      Drawing on the monochrome snapshots, Fang Zirbes began to employ graphite, then later dabbling in airbrush. She says, “The black-and-white style enabled me to reference the aged photographs and learn how to portray light and shadow in a new way.”

      The paint clings to the texture of raw canvas, creating a velvety texture of deep blacks juxtaposed with highly defined, masked edges. “It mirrors the content of my work,” the artist says, “where my compositions are sharp with fear and nervousness but the subjects and settings firstly appear strangely friendly.”

      Fang Zirbes’s process revolves around world-building, connecting references in every composition to her personal history or recurring dreams. “I believe this recurrence has a meaning that is rooted in my childhood memories or calls back to my past and how it impacts me today,” she says. “For example, I was always around rabbits and formed a special affection for them, which explains why I find myself painting rabbits over and over again when thinking about my upbringing.”

      Domestic items like Chinese pickle jars, lamps, couches, or sewing scissors appear within wallpapered rooms that tap into the artist’s home or her grandparents’ house in rural Iowa. “They are a combination of influences from both my American family and my Chinese family, as well as the Midwest which has its own unique culture that has had an effect on me,” she says.

      “Thorns” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      Fan Zirbes is working toward a solo exhibition scheduled to open in March at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York. “I’m continuing my monochromatic work about my upbringing in Iowa, but I’m introducing a new focus around the supernatural and American theories surrounding ghosts and hauntings. It’s a concept I’ve been researching over this last year and I can’t wait to see it through.”

      Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

      “Goodnight Moon” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Vanity” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

      “Dog on Couch” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Mama’s PaoCai Jar” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Rabbit Vase with Flowers” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 18 inches

      Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month.

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    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Art

      Angela Fang Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

      by

      “White Christmas Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 40 inches. All images © Angela Fang Zirbes, shared with permission

      Angela Fang Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

      September 3, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

      Share

      Pin

      Email

      Bookmark

      While preparing her undergraduate thesis exhibition at Parsons School of Design in 2022, Angela Fang Zirbes craved something different. She was working with traditional brushwork on canvas but was dissatisfied with the technique’s ability to achieve heightened contrast. Incidentally, her pet rabbit of 13 years also died that autumn.

      “She had been with me through some of my most formative years, and her death had a deep impact on me,” Fang Zirbes says. “I began thinking a lot about my upbringing and family history in Iowa, and I started working from a lot of old black-and-white family photographs as well as found imagery from around my hometown.”

      “Summer Birthday Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

      Drawing on the monochrome snapshots, Fang Zirbes began to employ graphite, then later dabbling in airbrush. She says, “The black-and-white style enabled me to reference the aged photographs and learn how to portray light and shadow in a new way.”

      The paint clings to the texture of raw canvas, creating a velvety texture of deep blacks juxtaposed with highly defined, masked edges. “It mirrors the content of my work,” the artist says, “where my compositions are sharp with fear and nervousness but the subjects and settings firstly appear strangely friendly.”

      Fang Zirbes’s process revolves around world-building, connecting references in every composition to her personal history or recurring dreams. “I believe this recurrence has a meaning that is rooted in my childhood memories or calls back to my past and how it impacts me today,” she says. “For example, I was always around rabbits and formed a special affection for them, which explains why I find myself painting rabbits over and over again when thinking about my upbringing.”

      Domestic items like Chinese pickle jars, lamps, couches, or sewing scissors appear within wallpapered rooms that tap into the artist’s home or her grandparents’ house in rural Iowa. “They are a combination of influences from both my American family and my Chinese family, as well as the Midwest which has its own unique culture that has had an effect on me,” she says.

      “Thorns” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      Fang Zirbes is working toward a solo exhibition scheduled to open in March at Hashimoto Contemporary, which represents in the artist, in New York. “I’m continuing my monochromatic work about my upbringing in Iowa, but I’m introducing a new focus around the supernatural and American theories surrounding ghosts and hauntings. It’s a concept I’ve been researching over this last year and I can’t wait to see it through.”

      Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

      “Goodnight Moon” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Vanity” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

      “Dog on Couch” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Mama’s PaoCai Jar” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Rabbit Vase with Flowers” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 18 inches

      Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month.

      Hide ads on website and newsletters

      Save your favorite articles

      Get 10% off in the Colossal Shop

      Members-only newsletter

      1% for art supplies in classrooms

      Join us today!

      $7/Month

      $75/Year

      Explore Membership Options More