Garlic and Gasoline | Brian Keith Stephens

Internationally renowned American artist BRIAN KEITH STEPHENS returns to the PUNTO SULL’ARTE Gallery for a solo show where the animal world is protagonist. The Opening reception will be held on SATURDAY, MAY 6 from 5pm to 7pm at the main gallery at Viale Sant’Antonio 59/61 Varese.

Three years after his debut at his Italian Gallery, the American painter Brian Keith Stephens returns to PUNTO SULL’ARTE with a new body of work. Faithful to his textured, dynamic, and expressive brush strokes, at once vibrant and blurred, the artist exposes us to another gaze on nature. His show features uninhabited landscapes and still-lifes as well as diverse representations of animal form. Stripped of naturalism, Stephens’ cheetahs, elephants, and zebras play with our perception. Animals lie doubled across their mirror image, repeat in modules, and emerge like figures in a procession across low-lying horizons, marked by palm trees or standing out against incongruous patterns that emphasize their allegorical scope. In this way, the artist reveals a symbology that through the presence of the animal seeks to outline human psychology. From here also comes the title, enigmatic and playful, “Garlic and gasoline”. The title relates to contrasting but coexisting energies, one organic one mechanical, different but both quite intense like a passion for good food or a passion for exquisite cars. Manifesting often in opposite activities: the joy of meeting for pasta with friends juxtaposed against the thrill of a speeding car. These sensations appear on Stephens’ canvases taking the form of a powerful but calm elephant, perhaps, or a slick, swift panther.

Previously unexhibited works by Artist will be on display.

Opening reception MAY, SATURDAY 6^TH from 5 TO 7 PM. The Artist will be present and at 6 pm the art curator Alessandra Redaelli will take a short speech in which she will introduce the essence of the exhibition. The exhibition is accompanied by a BILINGUAL CATALOGUE created by PUNTO SULL’ARTE containing curator Alessandra Redaelli’s critical text and the reproduction of the exhibited artworks.

The exhibition will be open until June, Saturday 10.