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STRUCTURES&

surfaces Lynn Duryea and Brad Stroman share more than a similar color palette. Both artists have perfected their skills through years of dedicated and solitary practice, creating visceral experiences for their audiences—one through steel and clay forms, the other with acrylic paint on canvas.

Duryea’s tall mixed-media pieces have been described as “totems of a past nearly mythical industrial age” reliquaries to ancient urban forms; however, they have a more immediate and austere visceral presence. At first glance it is difficult to distinguish between metal and clay as the patinas of the two materials blend, a conscious construct by the artist who has long experimented with glazes, the eye is seduced and the hand itches to break the rules—reaching out to touch, to caress her cool surfaces.

Stroman’s trompe l’oeil still-life paintings are also calculated to seduce the viewer; rendered through “washes, splatters, runs and glazes on a surface built up with layers of medium, then sanded, scraped and carved,” his textured surfaces deepen the optical illusion of the exquisitely rendered objects that float so delicately in fields of saturated color.

--Mary Anne Redding, Curator, Turchin Center

April 3 - August 8, 2015 Mayer Gallery

Hours Tuesday - Thursday & Saturday: 10am-6pm

Friday: 12pm-8pm

Brad Stroman Curly-Ques and Whiskers

Brad Stroman Winter Flight Lynn Duryea

Rock # 4

Lynn DuryeaFunnel #6

Related Exhibition Events

7:00pm 7:00pm

April April

22nd 29thArtist Lecture:Lynn Duryea

Artist Lecture:Brad Stroman

Please join us at the Turchin Center Lecture Hall for an indepth discussion with the artist anout their work and the exhibition.

The ordinary is quite extraordinary. Through elemental shape and form, my reference is to architectural, structural and mechanical elements, as well as large-scale industrial objects, evoking abandoned sites of human activity. The representation of function is in an allusive and enigmatic sense, a reference to the past. My interest lies not in replication or reproduction, but rather in suggestion.

When viewed from a distance, these objects present insistent profile and reductive form, images of simplicity and stillness. Closer consideration reveals a sense of history, traces of transformation that generate narratives of accretion and deterioration. Surfaces are generated by means of building up and wearing away, a layering and removal of materials that implies processes occurring over time, suggesting previous use and depicting the effects of decay, erosion and weathering.

Through a vocabulary of form of softened geometry, I investigate subtlety and nuance, and the method and manner of connection. Simplicity and clarity function as an expression, and as an invitation to contemplate the complexity and richness that can exist in the apparently straightforward. Subtle shifts and changes, seeing images from slightly differing angles and views, lends a depth to the consideration of objects.

Transition zones, borders, places where one reality shifts to another, are compelling in their quiet drama. Great energy exists along an edge. I grew up in a small town on the extreme end of Long Island, New York, knowing the feeling of a littoral, a place where land stopped and seemingly endless water began. Land and the landscape have been encountered in visceral as well as visual ways. The nature and essence of the feelings generated by a particular place are as inspiring to me as the structure and color of land, buildings and vegetation. Joy in the physicality of constructing is part of what compels me to create objects. I am interested in how structure, as well as the methods of construction and assembly, can become part of the visual language of an object. More than serving a compositional function, for me these elements become part of a record of making, connections in time as well as material.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Photo Credit: Joshua White

TCVA.org

Mounds #7 and Arches #6

LYNN DURYEA

Lynn Duryea

TCVA.org

EXHIBITION LISTING

Arch #5, 2014Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$675

Arch #6, 2014Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$675

Arch #8, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation, steel and rivets $6600

Arch #9, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$1100

Arch #10, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$5800

Arch #11, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$900

Clamp #3, 2014Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation kanthol wire$375

Curve #4, 2013 Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation steel and kanthol wire$675

Curve #5, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$6800

Double Deux #2, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation, steel and rivets $7000

LYNN DURYEAInsert #2, 2013Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation with staples $725

Funnel #6, 2012Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $525

Mound #5, 2013Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $875

Mound #6, 2013 Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $1075

Mound #7, 2014 Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $975

Plug #5, 2015Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $6000

Rock #3, 2011Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$950

Rock #4, 2012Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation kanthol wire, steel base $650

Silver #1, 2012Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation kanthol wire $575

Slant #7, 2013 Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation kanthol wire$875

Slant #9, 2013Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation kanthol wire$875

Stretch, 2014Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low fire oxidation$550

Taper #4, 2014Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $875

Tool #4, 2011Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation Steel Base $600

Tower #2, 2011 Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation$950

Tower #3, 2011Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation $950

Tower #6, 2012 Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation found object, steel basez$875

Wrap #2, 2013Clay slab-constructed terracotta, low-fire oxidation, steel and rivets $7200

If you are interested in purchasing a work from this exhibiton, please visit the Reception Desk

Photo Credit: David Simhock

TCVA.org

As a painter I continually challenge myself to create thought-provoking compositions that produce a message on the contemporary issue of the continual abuse of the environment.

I have been influenced by Eastern philosophy and Native American beliefs concerning the very essence of our existence. In particular, my work freely borrows from several Zen Buddhist principles of design; most notably, the incorporation of the aesthetic of wabi-sabi. This is a Japanese Zen Buddhist concept of the importance of transcending ways of looking at and thinking about our world and our own existence with Nature. Using wabi-sabi I explore ways to balance opposing forces of natural and man-made objects.My style incorporates a blend of both abstraction and realism; a sort of yin and yang relationship. My highly textural background surfaces are often rendered in a very loose fashion through washes, splatters, runs and glazes on a surface built up with layers of medium, then sanded, scraped and carved. By doing this I create a stage to play out the struggle between Man and Nature. The subject is then tightly rendered with great attention to detail of surface colors, values and textures in both natural and man-made items. I deliberately place objects from nature in precarious and somewhat agitated circumstances. Leaves become impaled with old nails, creekstones hang from twine, even feathers are sometimes imprisoned under rusted barbed wire. Thus, the subject is reduced to an intimate level of struggle in front of the viewer. The use of trompe l’oeil is incorporated for even more visual impact.

The square formatted compositions are deliberately austere allowing the viewer to focus on the subject matter, very often placed slightly off-center within the universal symbol of the circle. The circle within the square serves several purposes for me. The two opposing shapes create a very strong formal stage to reiterate the struggle between Man and Nature. They can also be interpreted as masculine or dominating (the square) and feminine or submissive (the circle). Still too, the circle stands for the cycle of life, harmony and completeness.

It is my hope that my art can help others contemplate on the unpolished beauty of nature where once it flourished abundantly in its unspoiled solitude, untouched by man. It is through this intimate interaction between my work and the viewer that I trust a stronger understanding will develop concerning our imperiled environment’s struggle against the daily ravages of man.

ARTIST STATEMENT

EXHIBITION LISTING

Bittersweet Messenger, 2014Acrylic on Wood Panel$3200

Blowing in the Wind, 2015Acrylic on Wood Panel $5000

Bungee, 2015Acrylic on Wood Panel $750

Curley-Ques and Whiskers, 2013-2015 Acrylic on Wood Panel$3000

Edge of Night, 2015Acrylic on Wood Panel $5000

Golden Wings, 2012Acrylic on Wood Panel$2100

BRAD STROMAN

BRAD STROMAN

Hideen Heart, 2011Acrylic on Wood Panel$800

Monarchs (Diptych #1), 2015Acrylic on Wood Panel $2400

Monarchs (Diptych #2), 2015Acrylic on Wood Panel $2400

Red Sails, 2006Acrylic on Wood Panel$800

Winter Flight, 2011Acrylic on Wood Panel$800

Winter Light, 2014Acrylic on Wood Panel$2300

If you are interested in purchasing a work from this exhibiton, please visit the Reception Desk