Please enjoy these photos by our resident photographer Valentin Sivyakov and save the date for our:
Biennial Artist & Collector Mixer
Saturday, August 12th
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Happy Summer!
6th International Print Biennial :: Opening Photos
The Art of Honor Bowman Hall
We are excited to share with you this collection of thirteen new artworks from Savannahian artist and SCAD-Savannah Dean of Fine Arts Honor Bowman Hall. The exhibition will be up through August 25th! Please enjoy and contact us if you’re interested in any of the works.
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
THE ART OF PRINT BIENNIAL
We are pleased to share with you The Art of Atlanta Printmakers Studio’s 6th International Print Biennial hosted @kailinart through August 25th. We hope you’ll come by on our regular gallery hours of Thursday-Saturday 12-5pm for a visit to tour this incredible exhibition along with Honor Bowman Hall’s Ocean Highway exhibit which is showing in tandem with the biennial.
For inquiries or availability, please contact the gallery at 404 408 4248 or email info@kailinart.com
Happy Summer & see you at the gallery!
APS BIENNIAL :: The Atlanta Print Biennial is an international juried exhibition, open to all artists working in hand-pulled printmaking processes. The exhibit is organized by Atlanta Printmakers Studio and hosted by Kai Lin Art, a contemporary art gallery located in the vibrant Westside District of Midtown Atlanta, GA.
This year’s juror is Miranda K. Metcalf. Metcalf holds a B.A. from the University of Washington in Philosophy and an M.A. from the University of Arizona in Art History, focusing on printmaking. After graduating, she became the Director of Contemporary Printmaking at Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Washington. In 2017 she moved to Sydney, Australia, where she worked with the world-renowned Cicada Press at the University of New South Wales. After two years Down Under, she relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, to take a director position at S.A.C. Gallery. She returned to the United States in 2021 and is a freelance writer, podcaster, and director of the month-long printmaking festival Print Santa Fe. Her podcast Hello, Print Friend is the longest-running print-centric podcast, with over 200 episodes featuring artists from thirty countries. When not working, she is gazing adoringly at her two Thai street dogs, which now live with her in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Atlanta Printmakers Studio (APS) was established to support the fine art of printmaking in metro Atlanta. Founders envisioned an organization that would provide a well-equipped printmaking studio for local artists as well as raise the awareness of printmaking as an art form. In August 2005 the incorporation papers were signed and in December 2006 APS’s 501c3 non-profit status was approved – Atlanta Printmakers Studio was founded.
Local art centers, universities, and galleries made available their facilities and galleries for workshops and exhibits as APS built membership and formed the organization. During the first year APS received many generous equipment donations. However, we needed of a permanent home. After many months of looking at potential studio space APS moved into the Metropolitan Warehouse complex. The doors opened in November 2006 near downtown Atlanta, and classes began in January 2007. Over the years APS has become a vital printmaking resource for artists, collectors, college students and children.
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
Atlanta Printmakers Studio 6th Biennial + Ocean Highway feat. Honor Bowman Hall
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2023
7:00 - 10:00 PM
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
EXHIBITION RUNS THROUGH AUGUST 25, 2023
ATLANTA PRINTMAKERS STUDIO 6TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL
+ HONOR BOWMAN HALL’S OCEAN HIGHWAY
We are pleased to announce our fifth exhibition for 2023 : The Atlanta Print Biennial + Ocean Highway.
APS BIENNIAL :: The Atlanta Print Biennial is an international juried exhibition, open to all artists working in hand-pulled printmaking processes. The exhibit is organized by Atlanta Printmakers Studio and hosted by Kai Lin Art, a contemporary art gallery located in the vibrant Westside District of Midtown Atlanta, GA.
OCEAN HIGHWAY :: Named for a segment of Route 17 as it passes through Savannah, Georgia, Ocean Highway is an homage to American two-lane highways and the nostalgic family road trip.
In coastal Georgia, the road between destination cities and towns is lined with moss-covered oaks, palm trees, marshland and at times, an ocean view dotted with atomic age signs for restaurants, motor inns, and the occasional surf shop.
Painter Honor Bowman Hall has long been inspired by the back roads. In 2009 she completed a five week cross-country loop from New York, New York to Seattle, down the Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles, and back to the East Coast on two-lane highways, including famed Route 66. This became the subject of an ongoing painting project to capture the spaces in between destinations.
Hotel pools, tiki bars, garages, convenience stores, and signs for family restaurants dot the landscape and populate this exhibition of life on the way from reality to vacation. The pictures evoke a world of summertime trips with stopovers in sleepy towns along the Ocean Highway.
This year’s juror is Miranda K. Metcalf. Metcalf holds a B.A. from the University of Washington in Philosophy and an M.A. from the University of Arizona in Art History, focusing on printmaking. After graduating, she became the Director of Contemporary Printmaking at Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Washington. In 2017 she moved to Sydney, Australia, where she worked with the world-renowned Cicada Press at the University of New South Wales. After two years Down Under, she relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, to take a director position at S.A.C. Gallery. She returned to the United States in 2021 and is a freelance writer, podcaster, and director of the month-long printmaking festival Print Santa Fe. Her podcast Hello, Print Friend is the longest-running print-centric podcast, with over 200 episodes featuring artists from thirty countries. When not working, she is gazing adoringly at her two Thai street dogs, which now live with her in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Atlanta Printmakers Studio (APS) was established to support the fine art of printmaking in metro Atlanta. Founders envisioned an organization that would provide a well-equipped printmaking studio for local artists as well as raise the awareness of printmaking as an art form. In August 2005 the incorporation papers were signed and in December 2006 APS’s 501c3 non-profit status was approved – Atlanta Printmakers Studio was founded.
Local art centers, universities, and galleries made available their facilities and galleries for workshops and exhibits as APS built membership and formed the organization. During the first year APS received many generous equipment donations. However, we needed of a permanent home. After many months of looking at potential studio space APS moved into the Metropolitan Warehouse complex. The doors opened in November 2006 near downtown Atlanta, and classes began in January 2007. Over the years APS has become a vital printmaking resource for artists, collectors, college students and children.
Honor Bowman Hall (b. 1984) is an artist and educator living and working in Savannah, GA. Hall is from Roanoke, Virginia and holds a BA in Studio Art and English from the University of Mary Washington (class of 2006). After moving to New York in 2007, where she worked in the music industry and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hall relocated to Savannah and received her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Following her graduate studies, she lived in Anchorage, Alaska from 2013-2017 and was the manager of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art (IGCA), the only not-for-profit exhibition space in Anchorage solely dedicated to contemporary art.
In addition to her work promoting and programming experimental art and facilitating exhibitions and events at IGCA, Hall also created two large murals in Alaska, including one at the Anchorage Museum, and taught Painting and Design courses at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Now based in Savannah for a second time, Hall is the Dean of the School of Fine Arts, Dean of the School of Visual Communication, and Chair of Fine Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
Hall graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in Painting in 2014. During her MFA candidacy, she was selected for a solo studio fellowship at the Elizabeth Foundation in New York, NY in conjunction with the SCAD Painting Department, and was selected to hold her thesis exhibition in conjunction with SCAD’s annual de:FINE Art event. Since her return to SCAD in 2017 as a member of the faculty, Hall continues to exhibit her work at SCAD. She has produced two murals for the university’s Savannah campus, and her artwork is featured on SCAD busses in Savannah and Atlanta.
Hall has held artist-in-residence positions in Savannah, Georgia, Richmond, Virginia and New York, New York and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Her paintings appear in several public and private collections. She is represented in New York by Contempop Gallery, in Atlanta by Kai Lin Art and online by SCAD Art Sales.
Hall is a member of the Friendship Magic Collective, an ongoing two-person art and music project for which she paints and plays cello. FMC’s most recent exhibition, Homecoming, was reviewed for Art Pulse Magazine #33.
EXHIBITING THROUGH AUGUST 25, 2023
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT 404 408 4248 OR INFO@KAILINART.COM
Awakening to the Zen-filled Universe of Elliston Roshi
Awakening to the Zen-filled Universe of Elliston Roshi
by Yu-Kai Lin
The world is loud and bustling. To learn to quiet the mind is a lifelong journey. In this series of 11 new paintings by Zen Sensei, sumi ink & watercolor artist Elliston Roshi, we come across a tranquil collection of artworks that interplay between stillness and vibrancy.
Refracted, reflective glass panels with sumptuous color fields plume across glass panes and gesso panels like a smoked-filled room of metaphysical revelations. A dance between structure and fluidity transport the viewer into Elliston’s world: a universe of shadowboxed three-dimensional jewel tones, magically mysterious and captivatingly ethereal.
In Deep Greens & Blues (sumi ink and watercolor on glass & gesso panel 41 x 61 x 3.5 inches), the viewer is transported through a rectangular vortex centered onto the back of the foreground glass. A wave of golden marigold cascades down the dense structure as it envelops the walls with luscious tones.
Complimentarily, in Dance of the Gorgon (sumi ink and watercolor on glass & gesso panel 41 x 61 x 3.5 inches), Elliston explores hues of ruby and crimson on a similar background of organic plumes pushing against humanity’s structures and defined borders.
Between these two works are a set of four Cantatas (red, yellow, green, & violet quartet - sumi ink and watercolor on glass & gesso panel 25 x 25 inches each). Compositionally, this quartet entrancingly lures the viewer to listen to each singular voice as a part of a whole. Perhaps Elliston is stating each individual is instrumental in creating vibrancy in our symphonic world.
In Solar Anomaly (sumi ink & watercolor on gesso panel 53 x 40 x 3.5 inches), the architectural L-shape structure thoughtfully follows the weft of the frame directing the viewer to the upper half of the artwork. The lines fade into oblivion like a momentary breath of bliss, intentionally Zen-full.
Elliston’s frontier of reflection is fully realized in September Song (sumi ink on mirror and glass in a shadowbox 37 x 28.5 x 2.5 inches). In this piece we are hazily shifted into a yin-yang realm where opposing sides mirror and counter balance with oxidized, Martian-like rusty resonances.
Elliston in his quest for visual phenomena and illuminated chroma is establishing his marker in our parenthesis of time. There is an almost cosmic nature to the flow and meditative state of mind in his art. As light comes to our field of vision, we are awakened to Zen in art, in practice, in permanency.
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
Artist Talk for Tranquility @kailinart
We are excited to invite you to our TRANQUILITY Artist Talk:
Saturday, June 17th, 2023
4:00 - 5:30 PM
Join Elliston Roshi, Jonny Warren, and Wesley Terpstra as they delve deeper into their respective bodies of work for our exhibition and learn about their process, their inspiration, and the meaning behind the artwork!
The visual poetry of Trey Dowell @kailinart
“The visual poetry of Trey Dowell”
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
Trey Dowell’s art is poetry in motion. Glimpses of animated figures, of reflected memories, of completely incomplete vignettes as his visual vocabulary. His is the language of folklore and fiction, autobiography and adventure, fantasy and fable.
Painted outlines dissolve into thick paint drips. Globs of color saturate the canvas like a beatnik in search of common ground on untethered lands. Graphite and glitter krump and jump across the surface unencumbered, unconstrained, uninhibited.
Trey’s youthful memories and wandersome spontaneity are found most prominently in everlasting arms (48 x 48 inches). “Bad habits” sprayed atop a flamed torch shouldered by a buck-naked fire fighter protagonist graffiti’ing the canvas with good habits, perched on a three dimensional checkered black & white concrete tiled-floor morphing into a background of aerosolized and acrylic cacophonies on which a Naruto-style side kick with “SHOGUN” above their head spins next to burning flames of red stroked blaze devolving into a semblance of a hatted shadowed-man, perhaps the man behind the work -
pulling the strings, creating the cacophonous symphony of chaos whilst observing the intensely playful and ingenuous mind of one Trey Dowell as a collaged figure of an afro’ed boondocks Huey-stylized fly boy jacketed with number 47 imprinted — perhaps the Tale of the 47 Ronin a somewhat true story about revenge and loyalty, a shogunate warrior-samurai overseeing a “poems” entrance entrancing into the universe of Adventure Time “Finn” above a tree structure on top of which a shiv weapon knives the bed of the halo’ed hangman with its angel wings as he peers above his glowing soul, boogieman-goblin looking on while a capped graffiti anime hero with frenetic and haphazardly coiffed “good” hair looks on as he ponders the meaning behind the meaning of this squared 48 x 48 acrylic, spray painted, colored pencil, collaged and glittered on canvas artwork entitled everlasting arms.
Paint is Dowell’s everlasting arms and we are enduringly broadened.
"The ponderous precision of color pencil artist Philip Carpenter"
"The ponderous precision of color pencil artist Philip Carpenter"
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
In this latest collection of nine drawings by Atlanta based artist Philip Carpenter, the viewer is transported into entrancingly refined, color pencil depictions of toys and action figures. These works take rummaged through thrift store refuses and elevates each item with permanency and precision.
Carpenter’s deft hand and application of pigment through simple colored pencil is extraordinarily enriching and lush in pigment. His use of negative space to place each figure onto the paper plane seems to beckon and call for a further investigation into the reinvention, re-imagination, and reemergence of what most people would not look twice at.
There is an almost trompe l’oeil three dimensionality where the viewer is mesmerized not knowing where the color pencil begins and where it ends.
In ‘Ur Car’ (colored pencils 29 x 35 inches), Carpenter documents a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. Every piece of plastic on the car is wondrously cast in playful shades of air force blue, candied red, and sunshine yellow. The wheels are spectacularly documented with whimsy and care.
Beside ‘Ur Car’ is the head of a Halloween dinosaur mask entitled ‘Beastie’ (colored pencils 20 x 24 inches). Bumpy, scale-y tyrannosaurus skin is fully realized as each bump and wrinkle is fossilized in colored pencil with exquisite definition.
Caddy-corner is the compliment to ‘Ur Car’, the gleamingly red, yellow and blue ‘Tricolor Tricycle’ (colored pencils 25 x 28 inches) and ‘Robo Dog’ (colored pencils 20 x 20 inches). Carpenter brilliantly renders one singular plastic canine standing in attention. One can almost imagine an assembly line of robot dogs in a toy factory waiting to be fetched.
Around the corner is a vignette of four toy artworks hung together in a windowed quadrant:
‘The Donald’ (colored pencils 20 x 24 inches) a mischievously wander-some documentation of Donald Duck, posing beside ‘Robot’ (colored pencils 20 x 23 inches), a Fisher-Price Rescue Hero with a glowing rocky cannon perched behind its armored helmet.
Below ‘The Donald’ is ‘Clown Clones’ (colored pencils 24 x 20 inches) — two colorfully captivating roly-poly ‘magic man’ toys that seem to bounce off the paper in delight and merriment.
The final piece that completes the quadriptych is the most prescient and potentially political work, ‘Boy Toys’ (colored pencils 24 x 20 inches). The seemingly innocent dual toy guns are placed in a duel as ones’ barrel confront another’s grip.
We were all children once, playing with crayons and markers and colored pencils. It’s highly unlikely anyone has explored in depth the use of colored pencils with as much intensity and meticulousness as Carpenter in this body of work.
True art is transformative and allows for ponderances and reflection. From an adults' visage of child-like wonder, Philip’s work is healing and hopeful. Carpenter’s elevation of these toys in shades of sumptuous pigment and sparkling hues are precise as they are alluring.
PHILIP CARPENTER has made art and exhibited in Atlanta since 1978. He received a Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts grant in1989 and was a Hambidge Fellow in 2001. Notable exhibitions include: The 1994 Atlanta Biennial at Nexus Contemporary Art Center; “Revival of the Figure” at City Gallery East in 1995; “Personal Circumstances” at Spruill Gallery in 2000; “Transitions” at MOCA GA in 2002; “Work and Play” at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in 2005; “Primary Color” at Marcia Wood Gallery in 2005; “Manipulating the Commonplace” at Swan Coach House Gallery in 2007; 17th Color Pencil Society of America Exhibition in 2009 and 2015; “Play” at Spruill in 2009; “The Painted Photograph” at Southwest Arts Center; “40 over 40” at EBD4 in 2017. His work was exhibited in “Georgia Artists choose Georgia Artists” at MOCA GA and “Drawing Inside the Perimeter” at the High Museum of Art. His work is in private and public collections including the High Museum, MOCA GA, The Lagrange Museum, The Lamar Dodd Art Center at Lagrange College and Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. His work was included in the 2004 edition of “New American Paintings”
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
TRANQUILITY : Elliston Roshi, Jonny Warren, Wesley Terpstra
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2023
7:00 - 10:00 PM
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
EXHIBITION RUNS THROUGH JULY 7, 2023
TRANQUILITY : ELLISTON ROSHI, JONNY WARREN, WESLEY TERPSTRA
We are pleased to announce our fourth exhibition for 2023 : TRANQUILITY, a three artist group exhibition featuring new works from resident artist Elliston Roshi, mixed media muralist Jonny Warren, and painter/professor Wesley Terpstra. These three artists represent a diverse range o3f Asian inspired aesthetics in our contemporary world.
Elliston Roshi works with watercolor and Sumi ink on multiple layers of glass, gesso panel and mirrored glass. These fluid abstract works are a natural interaction between the four fundamental forces of earth, wind, fire, and water. Geometry and flow play an integral part in these dynamic pieces as Elliston explores dimensionality on each plane of the frame as a “play within a play”. As a steward of Zen Buddhism, (Sensei) Elliston founded the Atlanta Soto Zen Center (ASZC) in 1977 and has written two books: The Original Frontier: A Serious Seeker's Guide to Zen and The Razorblade of Zen.
In this latest body of work by Atlanta based muralist Jonny Warren, concepts of second-hand nostalgia, longing and comfort are reflected and ruminated upon. Drawing from his mother’s childhood experiences in The Philippines, Warren explores identity as a multi-racial Black & Philipino-American. Combining tropical and muted colors, this body of work for Tranquility aims to capture the essence of the Philippines in its landscapes, native plants, and birds. Warren was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and is a working artist based in Atlanta, GA.
The third and final artist in our exhibition is painter and SCAD professor of art, Wesley Terpstra. In this series entitled Yau Ma Tei (district), Terpstra explore found paper and aged worn paper from his time in Hong Kong. Paper as a metaphor for human interaction and how through space and time, paper begins to gather new meanings. These beautifully rendered paintings in oil on canvas (large) and gouache on panel (small) are a visual documentation, a journal of wall posters and billboards aged and torn over time until they become fragmented pieces of artful glimpses.
EXHIBITING THROUGH MAY 27, 2023
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT 404 408 4248 OR INFO@KAILINART.COM
The wandersome, wondersome world of mark-making map artist Marc Boyson
The wandersome, wondersome world of mark-making map artist Marc Boyson
Marc Boyson @kailinart
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
Meanderingly methodical, almost like circular crop formations in a wheat field, Marc Boyson’s art is a study of intuitive mind-mapping and measured mark-making.
Shape and form play a central role in these dynamically layered, complex artworks. From drawing to etching, outlining to lasering, silver to gold to bronze leafing, flocking and glitter to rainbow liquids, chrome and copper pens, plywood and birchwood, porcelain and glazes — Boyson uses an inexhaustible range of techniques to express these maps.
Circuitous Dérive: Two Sides to Every Story : Birch Plywood, Laser Etching, Montana Gold Acrylic Paint, Pentouch Gold Pen, Gold Leaf in a Walnut Plywood Frame 30"x 30"x 3”
Raised outlines highlight the importance of each juncture as structural definitions of the path become measuredly frenetic, then seemingly sparse. It’s as if Boyson is delineating an open field of parks or perhaps an uncharted forest.
With each dead end, a new intuitive mark begins. With every turnabout, the ending becomes a new beginning. From a topographical perspective, the viewer is invited to engage the surface of these “intuitive derive variation{s} on a circle” through intentional mark-making.
Intuitive Dérive: Saint Joseph : Vintage Maple Plywood, Laser Etching, Liquitiex ink! Iridescent Bright Gold, Molotow Liquid Chrome, Sumi-e xerograph paper, Silverleaf on Birch Plywood in a Vintage Maple Plywood Frame 19"x 25"x 2"
A road leads to a juncture - an air hanger perhaps - leading to a port into the city - a maze of wonder for the wanderer. Golden pools of light, silvered landscapes of delight, drift and ponderous respite, where one can rest. A recuperation from the journey as daybreak takes the path back into wooded fields, paved roadways, unpaved routes.
Cubo No. 002 : Porcelain, Mishima, Gold ink, Glaze, Flocking, and Gold leaf
8.5”x 8.5”x 8.5”
These defined lines were mapped by humans on the same trail centuries ago now. A step becomes a mark, a mark becomes the path, the path becomes the way, the way becomes the pilgrimage. Shared journeys traversing on a spinning spherical playground, elevated onto planked birchwood platforms for which Boyson’s artworks exists.
Stay and wander is what Boyson is seemingly saying. Meander and ponder the road less traveled. Roam our shared universe, stay the course, but be willing to modify your plans at every juncture. The road ahead is rocky, tumultuous, arduous yet paved with lanes of inspiration, delight, revelation.
Whimsy & Wander : opening photos feat. Marc Boyson, Trey Dowell, Philip Carpenter
Dear Art People,
We are so excited to share the latest opening photos from our opening for Whimsy & Wander featuring the art of Marc Boyson, Trey Dowell, and Philip Carpenter.
Thank you to all who came out to the opening! Thank you also to Valentin Sivyakov for the amazing photos. For more on Val visit his site: valentinsivyakovphotography.com
If you have an interest in coming by to see the exhibit or any of the works from the show, please reach out. The show will run through May 27th @kailinart
Happy May!
Yu-Kai Lin, Luke Hamilton, Elizabeth Katafias
info@kailinart.com // 404 408 4248
How To Know the Ferns featuring Steven L. Anderson now extended through May 20th @kailinart
Dear Art People,
We are excited to share that we will be extending our exhibition “How To Know the Ferns” featuring Steven L. Anderson through til May 20th. We hope you’ll get the opportunity to come and see this exhibition.
Thank you to Felicia Feaster of the AJC and Dr. Jerry Cullum from ArtsAtl. Thank you also to Valentin Sivyakov for the fanstastic photos from the show! valentinsivyakovphotography.com
“Ferns are flourish in this efflorescent exhibition featuring Steven L. Anderson” KLA
Whimsy & Wander : Marc Boyson, Philip Carpenter & Treyvian Dowell
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2023
7:00 - 10:00 PM
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
EXHIBITION RUNS THROUGH MAY 27, 2023
WHIMSY & WANDER : MARC BOYSON, PHILIP CARPENTER, AND TREYVIAN DOWELL
We are pleased to announce our third exhibition for 2023 : Whimsy & Wander, a three artist group exhibition featuring fresh works from resident artist Marc Boyson, color pencil artist Philip Carpenter, and introducing multi-disciplinary artist Treyvian (Trey) Dowell. These three artists represent three generations of art educators in our contemporary art world.
Marc Boyson is an Associate Professor of Fine Art at the School of Visual Art & Design, Southern Adventist University in Tennessee. Boyson’s work reveals the cartographic trace through his commutes using memory, invention, and GPS records. Through works on paper, projection, murals, sound and ceramics, he reveals his everyday movement through space.
Philip Carpenter has taught painting classes at the Chastain Arts Center in Atlanta, GA since 1980. For these drawings, Carpenter is expanding his appreciation for portraying the ordinary. Rummaging through thrift store refuses, he finds used dolls and action figures as studies for his portraitures. This collection of nine drawings are a hyper realistic study of simple toys through colored pencils.
Treyvian (Trey) Dowell, a recent graduate of Georgia State University with a BFA in drawing, painting and printmaking is the Art Teacher for The Howard School in Atlanta, GA. Heavily rooted in abstraction and infused with vibrancy of color, Dowell creates each piece as a living sketchbook to capture the unencumbered nature of childhood and simplicity of wonderment.
EXHIBITING THROUGH MAY 27, 2023
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT 404 408 4248 OR INFO@KAILINART.COM
AJC review : Atlanta artist Steven L. Anderson goes between the ferns @kailinart
Atlanta artist Steven L. Anderson goes between the ferns
Photo Credit: valentin sivyakov By Felicia Feaster, For the AJC
An understudy in the plant kingdom takes on a starring role in this botanical celebration.
Atlanta’s contemporary art galleries have never seemed so fixated on thistles, wildflowers, cypress trees and Spanish moss as they are this spring with myriad shows looking at mortality, the Southern landscape, scientific classification and technological intervention through the lens of nature.
And for Atlanta artist Steven L. Anderson it’s all about the fern. Anderson uses two scientific tomes of botanical drawings “Ferns of Georgia” and “How to Know the Ferns” (also the title of this solo show at Kai Lin Art) as jumping off points for what he hopes might be a more fitting celebration of these “mesmerizing, wise, forest weirdies.”
Instead of offering technically proficient botanical studies, Anderson’s drawings and paintings represent multiple poetic efforts to capture what might be called the “spirit” of the fern.
Anderson does a deep dive into that prehistoric plant in “How to Know the Ferns” an exhibition that blends the botanical study, formal experimentation and a light dusting of anthropomorphic psychedelia.
Within the lexicon of plant life, the fern is a worthy subject. One of the most ancient of plants originating millions of years ago, the fern hides a complex universe — and some idiosyncratic reproductive strategies — within its fronds. “How to Know the Ferns” feels like an anthology in which a slate of artists are asked to interpret a subject within their particular style. But here it’s one artist offering multiple interpretations. And so we have rich, romantic embossed works like “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” where the lacey fronds and dangling exposed roots of the fern are rendered in gold leaf on a Chairman Mao-red background. Those works read like love letters to a beloved, cherished entity.
A neighboring artwork, “My Joyous Wisdom” in acrylic, spray paint and oil pastel is a celebratory paean to nature. In it a fern is surrounded by halos composed of multiple rings of color. The work recalls Anderson’s previous paintings of the endless rings of cross-sectioned trees. This is a fern in charismatic, life-of-the-party mode. And at its base, coiled in red, an embryonic fiddlehead waits to emerge.
The ferns in Anderson’s work are rendered in varying degrees of realism, from an abstracted version to a detailed, multidimensional fern. The diversity and eccentricity that speaks to the botanist also sucks in an artist who has found a complex subject worthy of his time.
A sort of symphonic, cacophonous fern exists in Anderson’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once” evoking study. Titled “Everything Which is Natural, Which is Infinite, Which is Yes” the work in paint and ink is a beautifully joyous fern festival in which a variety of plants in shades of lime, ochre and jade cavort like stars dancing in the night sky or the figures in Matisse’s “Dance.” In “Dreamers of Pictures” a lush emerald-colored fern is placed next to a thin, merlot-colored plant and the duo look like nothing so much as buddies posing for a photo.
although some works admittedly convey Anderson’s rapture better than others. But it’s hard not to admire an artist who can make one ponder the subtleties of something more often trampled underfoot on a nature walk.
VISUAL ART REVIEW
“How to Know the Ferns”
Through April 21. Noon-6 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; noon-5 p.m. Saturdays. Free. Kai Lin Art, 999 Brady Ave. NW, #7, Atlanta. 404-408-4248, kailinart.com.
Bottom line: A little silly, a little profound, this ode to the fern answers science with sentiment.
“Where the infinite meets the sublime” (Paper Boxes feat. Kevin Palme)
“Where the infinite meets the sublime”
a review of Kevin Palme’s solo exhibition : Paper Boxes
by Yu-Kai Lin, Kai Lin Art
photos:Valentin Sivyakov
What does it mean to capture the infinite? How can the documentation of a still-life of something as trivial as paper boxes become elevated to the extraordinary? When can play and work become so intertwined that the temporal becomes sublime?
Paper Boxes : Hexagonal Composition in Umber on Blues oil on wood panel 40” x 40”
In this latest body of work, Paper Boxes, a solo exhibition from Asheville-based painter Kevin Palme at KAI LIN ART in Atlanta, the artist explores these ponderances and seems to have captured the un-capturable.
To document is to record something in written, photographic, or artistic form; to provide information or evidence that serves as an official record. In this collection of twelve paintings, Palme chooses to document trompe l’oeil paper boxes with layers of oil paint, in a kaleidoscope of alluring and opulent colors.
Paper Boxes : Hexagonal Composition in Gray on Red oil on wood panel 40” x 40”
Palme’s deft use of pigments can be observed in the ombre background environments, allowing for the stacks of paper boxes to lift off the 2D canvas into an optical illusion of three dimensionality. The boxes compellingly pop off the surface of the canvas with astutely painted, photographic documentation. Each element is stacked in a haphazardly precarious, yet intentional formation as they connect at critical junctures. It’s as if Palme is saying “we are all in this together” as each box serves to further the next box in its contact.
Paper Boxes: Composition in Grey on Magenta; Composition in Clod Blue on Cobalt, Composition in Pink on Magenta, Composition in Sienna on Blue
These paper boxes begin to represent a society, a community, an individual. A delicate balance of souls in touch with one another, influencing and grounding with its presence. These metaphorical boxes seem to be saying “we all play a part of the whole, what holds us together becomes our purpose and place, in formation.”
What’s temporal and temporary in his painted universe becomes sublimely refined and permanent. Each box is exquisitely depicted in a uniquely weathered temperament: affected by its experience, altered by its existence, transformed by its connection.
Palme has raised the banal to the infinite. His obsessive concoction of varying degrees of linseed oil used to dilute oil paint allows for an ephemeral quality wherein the viewer doesn’t knowing where brush marks begins and where it ends.
We are left with an evanescence of a momentary glimpse in time. An encapsulation of the ephemeral, an elevation of the elemental, a capturing of free floating forms, weathered by time, eternally altered.
Artists are observers of life and of the duality of existence. Life is paradoxical in that way. Palme in his yearning for transience and documentation of the fragile and the impermanent, has created a meditative contemplation where the infinite meets the sublime.
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
Ferns are flourish in this efflorescent exhibition featuring Steven L. Anderson
A closer look at “Frontispiece” acrylic, pen, ink, laser transfer on paper over panel 24”x 16”x 1.5”
Ferns are flourish in this efflorescent exhibition
featuring Steven L. Anderson
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
Lush yet precise, exacting yet amorphous, Steven L. Anderson’s latest exhibition “How to Know the Ferns” now on exhibition at Kai Lin Art embodies a diverse range of ferns and fern allies in contemplation of the history of botanical art.
exhibition view of Steven L. Anderson’s solo show “How To Know The Ferns”
From panels wrapped with bookcloth, gilt with gold leaf, to spray paint and oil pastel, to the use of bleach on fabric-dyed canvas, Anderson’s choice of media presents a thoughtful exploration of layered and intentional mark-making.
“I have been fascinated by the complex, fractal forms of ferns for a long time, and first made artworks on the subject in 2014. It’s been sitting on my back burner to return to this, until I brought it to the fore last October.” Anderson
Anderson’s “What the Night Tells Me” Spray paint on canvas 34”x 24”x 2”
The artist plays with what it means to document ferns of Georgia with an all-over pattern for “What the Night Tells Me” (spray paint on canvas, 34 x 24 x 2”), to a portrait-like depiction of flora in the dynamic and largest work in the show, “Dreamer of Pictures” (ink, acrylic, marker, solid marker, laser transfer on canvas over wood panel, 68 x 44 x 1.5”).
”Dreamers of Pictures” Ink, acrylic, marker, solid marker, laser transfer on canvas over panel 68”x 44”x 1.5”
In this magnum opus (“Dreamer of Pictures”), Anderson employs the use of negative space to draw the viewer into his vision of the interplay between the masculine and feminine foliage as the deep maroon and thinner fern (left) is woven through the weft of the denser, plump fern in various hues of green (right).
“My Joyous Wisdom” Acrylic, Spray paint, oil pastel on canvas 32”x 48”x 2”
In the center of the exhibition is the postcard of the exhibition, “My Joyous Wisdom” (acrylic, spray paint, oil pastel on canvas, 48 x 32 x 2”). This work refers to Anderson’s drawings of tree rings as the fern’s fronds are wrapped in rings of thin and thick outlined colors which encapsulate the unfolding sporophyte, dancing atop the bottom right of the canvas, in an illustrative element of wonder, germination, and creation.
Bookending the center piece are three works, “Compendium of Nature Writing” (gold leaf, bookcloth, chip board on panel, 24 x 16 x 1.5”), “Liberation Textbook” (gold leaf, bookcloth, chip board on panel, 24 x 18 x 1.5”), and “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (gold leaf, bookcloth, chip board on panel, 34 x 24 x 1.5”).
Close up on the embossed “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” Gold leaf, book cloth, chip board on panel
Each of these works illustrates ferns debossed and gold leafed onto green and red bookcloth, creating an antiqued relic-like artifact from a bygone time.
These three are dimensional in a “you want to touch them but can’t way”, yet they compel the viewer to take a closer look at the depth and shimmer that encapsulates dew on an autumnal morning fern.
“When I started on this project late in 2022, I sat down and tried to draw a fern freehand, from memory. I couldn’t believe how hard it was! It made me question If I really knew how to draw or paint. To move forward, I knew I had to dig in, use a range of techniques and media, jump back and forth between pieces, and just experiment.“ Anderson
“One Thousandfold” Acrylic, ink, rit dye, laser transfer on canvas 32”x 48”x 2”
The most intriguing work of the show is “One Thousandfold” (acrylic, ink, fabric dye, laser transfer on canvas, 48 x 32 x 2”), which plays with drips and dyes that stain the canvas, creating an ambience of chaotic cacophony and wistful warmth. Anderson’s deft outlining in acrylic of fully developed fronds dance upon the surface of the way you would find a forest of ferns.
“Ferns are still as magical and elusive to me as ever, but I think I’ve learned *how* to know them—by painting and drawing them in as many different ways as I can imagine.” Anderson
”The Fool” Acrylic, ink on canvas 14”x 16”x 2”
Finally in “The Fool” (acrylic, ink, gold leaf, wood stain, laser transfer on canvas, 48 x 32 x 2”), Anderson develops yet another visual language employing densely raised outlines in heavy acrylic on wood-stained canvas. The fern form anchors a luscious flow of vibrant colors in shades of ochre and pink, custard and lavender, olive and emerald. The frond is then topped off with shimmering gold leaf. This piece can be viewed as the kitchen sink of Anderson’s entire body of work: everything, everywhere, all at once.
A deeper look into artist Stan Clark's exhibition CHIMERA
In visual art, a chimera typically refers to a creature that is a combination of different animals or mythical beasts. It is often portrayed as a fierce and powerful creature, with the ability to breathe fire or possess other supernatural abilities.
To create a visual representation of a chimera, an artist might combine various elements of different animals, such as the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. The artist may choose to emphasize certain characteristics, such as the muscular build of the lion, the shaggy fur of the goat, or the sinuous curves of the serpent.
The color palette used to depict a chimera can also play an important role in conveying its mood and personality. Bright, bold colors like red, orange, and yellow might be used to convey its fiery nature, while darker colors like black and purple might emphasize its more ominous qualities.
In modern art, the chimera has continued to evolve and take on new meanings. Some contemporary artists use the creature as a symbol of genetic engineering and the blending of different species, while others use it as a metaphor for the human condition and our own internal struggles.
Ultimately, the chimera in visual art is a fascinating and complex subject that offers artists a wide range of creative possibilities. Whether used as a symbol of mythological power, a representation of evil, or a metaphor for the human condition, the chimera remains a powerful and enduring image that continues to captivate audiences today.
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
The Art of Steven L. Anderson :: How to Know the Ferns
How to Know the Ferns {Artist Statement}
“How to Know the Ferns is a new body of paintings and drawings from Atlanta artist Steven L. Anderson.
Anderson’s ongoing look at the power of Nature and the nature of power focuses here through the lens of historical research. Art and science meet in two books, “Ferns of Georgia” (Rogers McVaugh & Joseph H. Pyron, 1951), and “How to Know the Ferns” (Frances Theodora Parsons, 1927 ed.). These wonderful collections of botanical line drawings present a close observation of the leafy plants, while imagining them as either soft, lilting, fainting, dainty beings; or as flattened, deterministic vessels of scientific study. Both adhere to Western culture’s tendency to reduce knowledge into categories, and to drain experience of its color.
Anderson aims to return a spirit of energy, wonder, and power to these pages. Experiments with bright inks, acrylics, and oils emphasize the true strangeness of these plant forms. Generative, fractal mark-making threatens to plunge the artist into exponential iterations of labor. Retinal vibrations bring the viewer into the madness. Poured auras imbue a glimpse of nature’s magic. The ferns begin to gain their own agency as mesmerizing, wise, forest weirdies.”
FOR AVAILABILITY & INQUIRIES
404 408 4248 | INFO@KAILINART.COM
HOW TO KNOW THE FERNS :: a solo exhibition featuring Steven L. Anderson
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2023
7:00 - 10:00 PM
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
EXHIBITION RUNS THROUGH APRIL 21, 2023
HOW TO KNOW THE FERNS : A SOLO EXHIBITION FEATURING STEVEN L. ANDERSON
Kai Lin Art is pleased to announce our second exhibition for 2023, HOW TO KNOW THE FERNS : a solo exhibition featuring new artworks from Atlanta-based artist Steven L. Anderson.
Steven L. Anderson
How to Know the Ferns {Artist Statement}
“How to Know the Ferns is a new body of paintings and drawings from Atlanta artist Steven L. Anderson.
Anderson’s ongoing look at the power of Nature and the nature of power focuses here through the lens of historical research. Art and science meet in two books, “Ferns of Georgia” (Rogers McVaugh & Joseph H. Pyron, 1951), and “How to Know the Ferns” (Frances Theodora Parsons, 1927 ed.). These wonderful collections of botanical line drawings present a close observation of the leafy plants, while imagining them as either soft, lilting, fainting, dainty beings; or as flattened, deterministic vessels of scientific study. Both adhere to Western culture’s tendency to reduce knowledge into categories, and to drain experience of its color.
Anderson aims to return a spirit of energy, wonder, and power to these pages. Experiments with bright inks, acrylics, and oils emphasize the true strangeness of these plant forms. Generative, fractal mark-making threatens to plunge the artist into exponential iterations of labor. Retinal vibrations bring the viewer into the madness. Poured auras imbue a glimpse of nature’s magic. The ferns begin to gain their own agency as mesmerizing, wise, forest weirdies.”
Steven L. Anderson is an exhibiting artist, and Co-Director of Day & Night Projects, an artist-run gallery in Atlanta that he helped originate in 2016.
Anderson is a graduate of the University of Michigan and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States since 1996. His artworks are found in the Microsoft Art Collection, the Tim & Lauren Schrager Collection, and in collections of Fulton County Public Arts, Coca-Cola Inc., Emory University Hospitals, the National Park Service, and others. Anderson’s sketchbooks are in the permanent collection of the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.
Anderson is a two-time winner of the Artists Project Grant from the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. He was an Artist-in-Residence at Yes We Cannibal in Baton Rouge, LA in March 2022, and at Atlanta’s Blue Heron Nature Preserve for the year of 2021. He was a recipient of the 2019 Denis Diderot [A-i-R] Grant at Château d’Orquevaux Artist Residency in Orquevaux, France. Anderson was a TAR Project Therapeutic Artist Resident in 2016–17, has been a Studio Artist at Atlanta Contemporary (2013–16), a 2015 Hambidge Center Distinguished Fellow, and a 2014–15 WonderRoot Walthall Artist Fellow.
Anderson’s day job is Senior Graphic Designer and Studio Manager at the Office of Undergraduate Admission at Emory University. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Liz and son Finn.
exhibiting through April 21, 2023
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT 404 408 4248 OR INFO@KAILINART.COM
PAPER BOXES :: the opening photos
We are pleased to share with you photos from the grand opening of PAPER BOXES, a solo exhibition featuring Kevin Palme. Thank you to Valentin Sivyakov of Visual Sage for the awesome shots. For more on Val visit his page here.
