Please refer questions to Jeffrey Moose, 206.467.6951 or jmoose@jeffreymoosegallery.com.
On Friday, May 4th from 5:30 to 8:30 PM, surrealist painters Louise
Britton and Jeff Mihalyo will celebrate the installation of a group of new
work with a reception at Jeffrey Moose Gallery, 1333 5th Avenue, the
second level of Rainier Square in downtown Seattle. Complimenting these painters will be the unusual, biomorphic ceramic sculptures of Zanne Nelson. The exhibition will open on
Wednesday, April 25th and run through Saturday, June 9th.
Mr. Mihalyo has been exhibiting in the Seattle area for over ten years
while working as a designer and illustrator for numerous high-end clients
including Microsoft, Dreamworks, Millstone Coffee, Hornall Anderson, Real
Networks and Jim Hennson Studios. His soft-edged realism often comes with
a humorous twist; giant shoes and barns fly through the sky with a touch
that lends an air of fun rather than the ominous incongruity most often
connected with works in this genre. And while "Fun" the works are far more than
illustrations for children's books. They carry the air of the narrative
while existing as stand alone metaphors for conflicts in modern life.
Juxtapositions of Pastoral America with the Electronic Age, contrasts of
scale (often featuring people as the Goliaths of Earth) and occasionally
stylized renderings of elements in nature reveal a keen sense of
observation that simultaneously shocks and delights.
Jeff Mihalyo
"Barnetts go to town"
oil on masonite
2000
6" X 8"
More works by Jeff Mihalyo
Louise Britton, recently arrived from Atlanta, Georgia, paints in a
style more crisp than that of Jeff Mihalyo. Her style is reminiscent of
Magritte; virtuoso underpainting and modeling are hallmarks along with bold, iconic
placement of seemingly incongruous objects. In "Magnolia With Burning", oil on
canvas, 24"x18", an enormous white magnolia blossom, symbolic of virginal purity and of the Old South, sits seductively at the edge of foliage. A hand appearing from the bottom of
the picture plane reaches up towards the flower. To the left, a sky filled
with fire, smoke and clouds rises dramatically to the top of the image. Above
all hangs the menacing form of a hornet's nest, a metaphor of impending
danger. Like Mr. Mihalyo, Ms. Britton has also worked as an illustrator and
commercial artist as well as an exhibiting fine artist. She holds an MFA
from Georgia State University.
Louise Britton
"Magnolia with Burning"
1998
oil on canvas
24" x 18"
More works by Louise Britton
Sculptor Zanne Nelson, with an MFA from the University of Washington,
is a perfect compliment to this duo: her space-age forms, somewhat animal, a
little bit veggie, are familiar, yet unearthly. The colors and surfaces of
her creations say little to betray themselves as objects made of clay. Their
perfect symmetry and surfaces show no sign of a human hand. In a
multi-dimensional world of surreal scenes, every work by Ms. Nelson feels
perfectly at home, perhaps even born from the non-reality!
Zanne Nelson
"What Goes Around"
1998
22" X 22" X 13"
More works by Zanne Nelson
Read a review of this show from Art Access magazine
