CONSTRUCTS:

Burgess Modern + Contemporary

Hampton Fine Art Fair 2022

 

At Hampton Fine Art Fair 2022, Burgess Modern + Contemporary presents a curatorial exhibition titled: Constructs which includes artwork by Miss Bugs, Gabriel Delgado, Rex Hausmann, David Hayes, Damien Hirst, Joan Miro, Jedd Novatt, Pablo Picasso, David Salle, Frank Stella, Mickalene Thomas, Gustavo Torres, and Tom Wesselmann.
 

In Constructs, Burgess Modern + Contemporary academically establishes a cumulative selection of artists who conceptually explore constructions- Constructs of space & time, composition, codes, linguistics, illustrations, narratives, and historical implications.

 

From Pop Art, Minimalism, Academia, Surrealism, and Modernism, Constructs instills a sense of elevated scholarly aptitude toward modern and contemporary art.  Each artist in the exhibit brings a unique style to this silent volubleness- Historical, Academic, and Contemporary.

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Internationally acclaimed Contemporary Artist, Jedd Novatt has a visual language that defines his signatory linear aesthetic; an interpretation of factual environmental apexes manifested through lines, angles, and vertices that engage negative space against positive. The artworks theoretically propel themselves through the firmaments of space, carried by the dynamic spatial vibrations found within the arrangements.  The momentum is purposefully and perfectly contrasted and even constrained with his choice of rigid and weighted materiality. 

 

Novatt is an artist often examined through constraining connotations of chaos theories.  In Constructs, Burgess Modern + Contemporary begins to disseminate and dissect Novatt’s seemingly random elements which are in fact governed by deterministic laws such as gravity.

In the Hurácan Sculpture Series, Novatt examines discernments of balance with his geometric shapes that build upon, morph within, and volley around each other. It is within these undefined quadrilateral forms that the artist examines the critical analysis of scale and weight. Hurácans’ upward and outward mobilities can be characterized as infinite as the artist probs the perceived absolutes of spatial realities, both physical and transcendental. In this conceptual yet constructed formalism of linear constructs resides Novatt’s self-reliant artistic vocabulary.

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In the verisimilitude of our everyday existence, the real definition of the demarcated Kármán Line does not conclude at any given elevation within Earth’s atmosphere, it is merely a subjective definition in man’s rudimentary scientific exploration. 

 

In Novatt’s Kármán Line monotypes showcased in this exhibition, the artist interprets conjectures of atmospheric and altitudinal dimensions maneuvering beyond the two-dimensional ocular to a more astomatous reality. As reflective of mankind’s elementary atmospheric assessment, the artist’s visual forms take on the role of what we recognize as a drawing, where linear principles drive the viewer to follow the spontaneous but purposefully arranged composition through calculated routes of intersecting boundaries, edges, configurations, and angles.  Through these drawings, Novatt embarks on the colossal and ostensibly unobtainable occupation of relinquishing visual anchors of reference to the viewer for them to understand the conceptual and physical propinquity. The linguistic dichotomy of the two colors renders a flat image, yet the conceptual depth exists in the theoretical planes found between foreground and background and between line and shape.

 

Skull and Circle spin paintings by Damien Hirst are visual excerpts from a public participation venture that Hirst contributed to for the opening of Requiem, a major retrospective of over 100 works which opened on April 25, 2009, at PinkchukArtCentre, Ukraine. During the public opening ceremonies, the artist hosted a spin art workshop, allowing museumgoers to participate in the artmaking process on various shaped paper. Two universally understood symbols, the heart and butterfly, bring a playful sense to his sometimes-offensive visual vocabulary.  Stylistically painted in the home-craft, spin art technique, Hirst brings this aesthetic to the blue-chip art world.

 

Skull and Circle both bear the “Hirst” stamped signature, and the accompanying inscription that reads: “This painting was made to celebrate the opening of Damien Hirst, Requiem, at the PinchukArtCentre.” 

 

In Tom Wesselmann’s Still Life with Blonde and Goldfish, 3D raised paper Mixografia print explodes with vibrancy, the artist deftly showcases his determination to reject all notions of Abstract Expressionism.  These shaped swatches of bold and bright colors provide minimalist environments for everyday objects such as bowls of fruit, flowers, and a fishbowl simplistically rendered and void of any emotion.

 

Gabriel Delgado creates themed artwork that explores aspects of technology, emotions, crypto currencies, along with contemporary social and political events, ranging from Police Brutality, Animal Rights, Environmental Rights, Science, Economy, Immigration, Social Reform, and other relevant topics. His PEMDAS driven, and conceptually solvable Order of Operations mathematical equations bring to light the elegance of numerical and text-driven logic via an expressive scientific chalkboard aesthetic.

 

In the “The History of Bitcoin”, by Gabriel Delgado, the equation begins with identifying the anonymous person and / or group who is deemed the founder of bitcoin and the establishment of the creation of the peer-to-peer network to support the new cryptocurrency. The artist identifies the idea of decentralized digital currency, the ISO codes, the proof of work properties, as well as the historical contexts of its creation with the initial “Genesis Block”. The second part of the balanced equation continues the evolution of the Bitcoin from the first commercial use for the order of Papa John’s Pizza and the early proof of concept to the reality of black-market transactions which established the role of the bitcoin early in its conception to buy drugs, arms, porn, and other illegal items on the black market. The artist also touches on the reality of the cap market for Bitcoin, the hacks that have affected its status, and pitfalls of Bitcoin, as well as the influence of Elon Musk’s tweets on its value.  Financial demarcations are established with the date of the “Genesis Block”, the current Bitcoin market value, the lost bitcoin from online transactions to the % of increase from outside influences.

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Works with black and hard-edged definitions and gestural attributes by leading Surrealist, Joan Miro are harmoniously contrasted by the unapologetic and canonical symbolisms of American painter, David Salle’s sophisticated satire, jest, and ambiguity.

 

The dimensional constructed and collaged Lithograph of Frank Stella contrasts the simplistic nature of Pablo Picasso’s faces.

 

Burgess Modern + Contemporary’s Constructs presents an exhibition that captures the full attention of the viewer, while creating opportunities to facilitate discussions on a multitude of subjects from academia to politics, and the cosmos to humankind.