Fri 10 Apr 2009
Opening tonight at Roq la Rue Gallleryin Belltown, the works of Nathan Ota and Anthony Pontius, 6-9pm.
From Kirsten:
Gorgeously apocalyptic and subtly infused with a dark whimsy, Anthony Pontius uses a variety of media (mostly oils and pencil on wood panel) to create his haunted and stark landscapes that have a strange resonance to the unearthly works of Bosch, inhabited by strange creatures and degraded machinery. With narratives looking like the end of a bleak fairy tale that did NOT end happily ever after, the canvas is then splashed with streaks and blotches, and re-worked with pencil creating intricate scarred vignettes of ghostly words and images. Each painting is suffused with a smoggy, smothered glow that creates an evocative and enigmatic aura. Anthony will be showing 9 brand new paintings on wood panel, and 9 small graphite studies.
Nathan Ota’s paintings are exquisitely rendered in acrylics and can be interpreted as commentary on environmental issues as well as the exploration of personal relationships. Breathtakingly tight line work and a sophisticated sense of color theory are combined to create luminous works that touch on subjects such as enviromental degredation to feelings of personal loss, and featuring a re-occuring cast of inquisitive, hollow eyed birds, drunken dunce cap wearing monkeys, decrepit robots, and his anthropomorphic tree beings.
He will be exhibiting 12 paintings as well as a selection of smaller paintings and drawings.
