Michael Abraham
October 6 – 29, 2016
First Thursday: October 6, 5-8p
Artist Talk: October, 23 (gallery will be open from 12:30 – 3pm)
“The Role of the Artist in an Age of Turmoil” by Michael Abraham, 1pm

Click here to purchase a catalog of Naughty/Bad Guys.
   

Oil paintings on linen and bronze sculptures exploring facets of modern society, reflecting on ‘good’, ‘righteousness’ and ‘power’ – images of people who know their power but may not know their flaws, revealing an undercurrent of darker truth.

With artwork titles like ‘Sleeping Dog’, ‘Hope and Punches’, ‘Yin Yang Businessman’, ‘Power Couple’ and ‘The Big Fish, when you tour the exhibition Naughty you’ll understand what esteemed Los Angeles gallerist Jan Baum meant when she said:

Abraham’s paintings are both charming and disarming. With a mischievous grin he wields his imagination on canvas. A warrior for tolerance and understanding – hope and joy, he means what he paints. Michael Abraham says he deals less in social commentary more in psychological realism (He deals in both). He shares his perceptions and incites with a good sprinkle of humor. The slight distortion of the figures percolates to the actions, which are mild to manic. Though helplessly terrorized as we confront (some of) his darker images, basically we know he means well, and like Breughel, he points to the indisputable foibles of mankind. Merging the inner and outer experience with creative freedom… If he can illuminate the dark corridors of our journey, he is requited and we are the beneficiaries.

Everything he paints is beautifully constructed, sometimes with a Renaissance-like illusion that makes it seem possible to reach out and move a detail.

Abraham says Art is a reflection of life: growing and dying, serious, funny, absurd, joyous, hard, paradoxical, sensuous, scary, communal, divisive… all things at once, and ever changing. Each creation is a snapshot of the mind in time.