For Immediate Release:
Contact Shooting Gallery- Justin Giarla
Justin@whitewallssf.com
Contact Shooting Gallery- Justin Giarla
Justin@whitewallssf.com
Shooting Gallery Presents:
Empty Room
New Works
by Adam Caldwell
Shooting
Gallery is pleased to present Empty Room,
new works by Adam Caldwell, featuring eight
large oil paintings, including two triptychs. The opening reception will
be Saturday, November 10th, from 7-11pm, and is free and open to the public for
viewing through December 8th, 2012.
Empty
Room acts as a continuation and culmination of the series
Caldwell has been working on since the beginning of the year, addressing the
concept of Cartesian Dualism and its impact on Western society. The landscapes
and interiors of Empty Room show the
breakdown of culture in the grip of these ideas, with figures and scenes that
span history to meet in a composite framework of destruction. With a fluid
approach to photorealism, Caldwell creates images that seem to meld into and
out of each other, united only in the feelings of struggle and loss their
visages evoke.
From the artist:
“These paintings are centered on the
idea that the mind and body are separate things. In the west there has been a
traditional boundary between the physical and the mental. This division is seen
in Christianity as the separation of body and spirit and has profound
implications for how we perceive the self and the world. The body is seen as
shameful and Nature is fallen from grace while the mind or spirit exists in a
state of potential purity and perfection. In philosophy Descartes famously
defended the idea of dualism. I wanted to examine these ideas and show how
badly they have affected our culture, influencing everything from legal
decisions about responsibility, the destruction of the environment, to our very
concept of identity. I also intend this show to be a critique of technology and
its deteriorating effects on the notion of self.
In the paintings, pieces of history,
broken and abandoned buildings, isolated figures, lines of text about dualism,
advertising, and machinery all collide. The space and scale of the paintings
are broken up. The light can come from multiple sources. These elements convey
the flickering, fragmented world we have inherited and symbolize the life that
exists within the context of a split between the mind and the body, between the
self and the rest of nature.”
Adam
Hunter Caldwell graduated from the California College of Art with a double
major in Fine Art and Illustration in 1998. Post-graduation found Caldwell explored
various avenues in the arts – illustration, storyboarding, and concept art –
but did not feel at home with commercial work. In 2001, he began teaching
full-time at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco which allowed him
to work without any constraints and experiment in various forms of drawing,
collage, and multi-media work.
The Shooting Gallery opened its
doors in 2003 to the historic Tenderloin district of San Francisco, known for
its lively street culture. Growing up in Southern California gave owner and
curator, Justin Giarla, a love for everything lowbrow: pop art, street art,
outsider art, punk rock album art, comic book art, surf/skate art and hot rod
culture. Giarla recognizes how important it is to provide lowbrow artists with a
platform for their work, which is exactly what Shooting Gallery has done for
nearly a decade.
Media Opportunities:
Interview with Adam Caldwell
Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin
Giarla
High-resolution images available upon request
Event Information:
Empty Room by Adam
Caldwell
Opening Reception – Saturday, November 10th,
7-11 pm
On View Through December 8th, 2012
@
Shooting Gallery (www.shootinggallerysf.com)
839
Larkin St, San Francisco, CA
