ODE TO ODIN
works by Ernest Concepcion

June 4 - 27, 2009
Artist Reception: Friday June 12, 7 - 9pm

NY Studio Gallery is pleased to present Ode to Odin works by Ernest Concepcion. With an underground reputation for rendering pastoral, warring landscapes peopled by meticulous caricatures of high-density sci-fi populations on canvas, Ernest Concepcion boldly moves into in a new series of aluminum paintings that focus on a single event—the detonation of the atomic bomb. In this new body of work, Concepcion studies NY Times reporter William L. Laurence’s fetishization of the effects of nuclear warfare and testing. Paid off by the CIA to underreport the colossal devastation of the American atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Laurence reported in 1945 how “watching it as it was being fashioned into a living thing, so exquisitely shaped that any sculptor would be proud to have created it, one . . . felt oneself in the presence of the supranatural." Concepcion dares to suggest as much in a series of enamel paintings of the (in)famous mushroom cloud exploding with color.

In his 2006 painting Ode to Odin, Concepcion captures the primary symbols of war: sex, greed and strife. He begins by depicting colorful idyllic landscapes, using acrylic or oil paint which, following a period of one to three months, he aggressively tags the surface of with Sharpie pens. Miniscule figures and outer-space hybrids find themselves trapped in an endless nightmare of battle. He breaks away from the imposed linearity of modern comics, overlapping, instead, varying scenes in order to suggest that such caricatures share the same space of the viewer.

Recipient of the Reality Gallery American Slide-All 2009: Solo Exhibition at NY Studio Gallery

About Ernest Concepcion
Ernest Concepcion was born in Manila, Philippines where he received his BFA then moved to the US in 2002. Selected exhibits include: Bronx Museum of the Arts, d.u.m.b.o. arts center, Asian American Arts Centre, The Contemporary Museum in Hawaii, Exit Art and a solo show at the Kentler International Drawing in 2008. Concepcion has participated in the LMCC/Workspace 120 Broadway Artist Residency, the Bronx Museum of Art Artists-in-the-Marketplace (AIM) program, the Artists Alliance Inc. Rotating Studio Program and the Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency

Source: http://www.nystudiogallery.com/

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net