Kevin Muente:

Places in Time: New Landscape Paintings

February 19 through April 9, 2010

Gallery Hop Reception for the artist:

Friday, February 19, 5 to 8 p.m.

Artist Statement:

With these paintings I was able to experiment with format, minimal realism, and hand-built frames that incorporate objects inside niches.  The objects relate to the paintings on a conceptual or formal level, forcing the viewer to ponder the relationship between the space depicted and the object.

For example, Convergence, Sooes River, depicts the Olympic Peninsula coastline that inspired me visually at first without knowing the historical significance to the local Makah people.  The Sooes was the hidden launch point for a young band of Makah men eager to exert their treaty rights of whale hunting.  The driftwood in the niche not only relates to things the ocean casts ashore but visually relates to the rocks and symbolically ties its shape to the harvested whale.

CONVERGENCE, SOOES RIVER, 2009, Oil on canvas with drift wood, 20 x 44 inches

YELLOWSTONE, Oil on canvas, 16 x 40 inches (In Progress)

PLAZA BLANCA, Oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches