“Overlord” Curated by Maine artist Kenny Cole, showcasing the work of twenty six artists: Jeffrey Ackerman (Maine), Melinda Barnes (Maine), Jennifer Beinhacker (Washington, D.C.), Kim Callas (Maine), Kenny Cole (Maine), MJ Viano Crowe (Maine), Don Doe (NYC), Robert Egert (NYC), Rodney Ewing (California), Fabian Häusermann (Switzerland), Kat Johnson (Maine), Walter Kopec (Boston), Paula Lalala (NYC), Matt Lock (US), Ben Marra (Canada), Hye Ryung Na (Korea/NYC), Lara Nasser (Lebanon/NYC), Niklas Nenzen (Sweden), Ben Potter (Maine), Terrence Sanders (California), Alice Sfintesco (France), Amy Stacy Curtis (Maine), Nora Tryon (Maine), Aleksandra Waliszewska (Poland), Kathy Weinberg (Maine), Stephen Whisler (California)
Transcript
“Overlord”
Curated by Maine artist Kenny Cole, showcasing the work of twenty six artists:
Jeffrey Ackerman (Maine), Melinda Barnes (Maine), Jennifer Beinhacker
(Washington, D.C.), Kim Callas (Maine), Kenny Cole (Maine), MJ Viano Crowe (Maine), Don Doe (NYC), Robert Egert (NYC), Rodney Ewing (California), Fabian Häusermann (Switzerland), Kat Johnson (Maine),
Walter Kopec (Boston), Paula Lalala (NYC), Matt Lock (US), Ben Marra (Canada), Hye Ryung Na (Korea/NYC), Lara Nasser (Lebanon/NYC),
Niklas Nenzen (Sweden), Ben Potter (Maine), Terrence Sanders (California), Alice Sfintesco (France), Amy Stacy Curtis (Maine), Nora
Tryon (Maine), Aleksandra Waliszewska (Poland), Kathy Weinberg (Maine), Stephen Whisler (California)
Kenny Cole
Dark Predator2013Pastel on paper30" x 22"$700.00Stephen Whisler creates here ablue print, but not thearchitectural kind or anythingthat was made from a printmakingdevice. His blue comes from hisown thumb print. Using the"tiling" option on his homeprinter he scales up internetimages and then transfers bothgrid and image, using his "digit"and a coating of blue pastel, ontoa large piece of drawing paper.The result is an archivalrepresentation of a digital imagethat holds traces of the artist'sidentity creating a quixotic fistin the air towards the Overlordianmenace of drone technology.
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Kenny Cole
"Retale Ass"2006Cloth, rubber 72" x 2" x3"$1200.00Walter Kopec'sarrangement ofready-mades, seems to"literally" speak foritself. The Overlord inhis piece must be thedesire for consumption orbeing a good consumer,which here backfires, ina way and appears asregurgitation. Designerlabels, which fulfill ournatural inclination tobelong to a tribe, andsport their insignia ofalignment, indicate ourwillingness to admit thatcapitalism is our trueGod.
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Kenny Cole
"My Room Get Out"2013Pencil on paper8.5" x 7"$160.00Matt Lock fits into the theme of“Overlord” by depicting the ubiquitousbedroom computer station, where we havelost, by now, generations of our youthto the overpowering seductions of cyberspace. Matt’s teenager has mutated intoa large lobed alien, or possibly thisis just a view into another teenager’sroom on another planet, whose beingshave achieved the same advances intechnology as we have here on planetearth? Either way obedience to theOverlord requires ritual upright,supine-posture, and hands typing outthe mystical rubric, sacred offeringbowl, ceremonial pajamas and nearbymeditation mattress.
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Kenny Cole
"The Truth Revealed Itself in aMirror"2014Pencil on paper11.5" x 9.25"$225.00Matt Lock, renders a detailed viewfrom some Sci-Fi arcade or streetscene in his "The Truth RevealedItself in a Mirror". There’s acertain anticipation suggested aswe view the scene from behind. Themain character has just becomedistracted by his reflection in amirror, which reveals him to beLucifer himself, the ultimateOverlord. His buddies urge himforward. The myriad of details,from the patterns and accessorieson the clothing to the quirkysignage and wall graphics withinthe scene’s architecture, draws uscompulsively into the scene.
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Kenny Cole
"Pump Trap Rehersal"2013pencil on paper8.5" x 7"$160.00Matt Lock’s “Pump Trap Rehearsal”sketches out an absurd cyber experimentin which a couple of hooded teenageOverlords conduct a bizarre experimenton some kind of life-like sex robot. Itis a male fantasy with infantileundertones as their equipment attemptsto function like a breast pump,suggesting a deeply Freudian cycle andominous dysfunction.
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Kenny Cole
"Engulfing"2012Sharpie pen, stamps9" x 12"$125.00Jennifer Beinhacker’s “Engulfing” is abrupt, stylistically andthematically with her totemic renderings of figures begettingfigures. Beinhacker, a self taught artist, has her compositionanchored on the extreme right with a stack of vertically repeated“classically” rendered portrait profiles from which her black andred linear figures seem to branch off of. Intertwined, menacing,yet playful, they are dominated by a toothy truncated maidenhead,our Overlord, here anchored to the portrait stack, who seems to beexpressing or literally “expressing” from her mouth the maincluster of teeth clenching “screaming meanies”, while a smallerseparate figure jabs its elongated arm back into the lower right,completing a satisfying compositional spiral.
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Kenny Cole
"Old Farmhouse"2012China ink, printer ink, felt pen on paper11.5" x 14"$400.00Fabian Häusermann’s “Old Farmhouse” sets up what could easilyrepresent the dwelling of an Overlord in a shimmering winter scenethat is crystal clear and radiant. His technique is to start with anoriginal patterned drawing that he then scans, reduces, draws onagain, and reduces and so on until he has built up a dizzying anddense accumulation of structure. The end result is a surprisingly calmyet mesmerizing scene that vibrates and enchants.
View the process of creating "Old Farmhouse"
youtu.be/6a0OEdWPz4A
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Kenny Cole
"Green Room Defense"2013mixed media240 cm x 320 cm$700.00Niklas Nenzen's “Green Room Defense”is a scene populated by anassortment of creatures andpersonalities, some literally“stacked” upon one another, othersacting out a variety of pantomimeson and around a main figure lyingsupine on a divan. The stone bustpuffing out smoke on the left is ourOverlord in this scene, with hispensive sidelong glance. Aninventory of the cast of charactersand props begins to suggest to usthe early days of the silver screen,with the grisaille rendering of the"people pile" behind the greencurtains. Our main figure seemsexhausted, collapsed on her divan,hidden behind a mask, while thecacophonous Hollywood premieretumbles around her.
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Kenny Cole
"Self Portrait"2015plastic bag on panel17" x 14.5"$850.00Ben Potter uses the limited palette andlimited textures afforded by plastic bagsglued to panels to construct images offigures that are familiar and common tohim. This self portrait is from a seriesof portraits in which he represents thesubject posed with a skull. Here we beginto consider that heavy handed subject astentative and whimsical. Our artist is anordinary guy in a hoodie floating in awhite void offering up a simple gesture.Nagging at us from within ourcontemporary psyche is his medium: theoverly abundant, illegal in Austin,Texas, dolphin choking plastic bag,forcing us to contemplate the severityand cumulatively destructive potential inthe understated and the ordinary.
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Kenny Cole
"Cave"2014Pen and gouache on paper6" x 12"NFSThis collaborative drawing between Kat Johnson and Kenny Colebegan with Kat Johnson's green line drawing of a reclining femalefigure among architectural minaret profiles. Cole then renderedit as a subterranean scene, camouflaging the figure as a patternof red stripes frozen into a mini city clustered on the floor ofa schematically colored cave. In the distance we see a figurestanding at the cave's outlet. Is that our overlord? If so, hethen might be guarding a claim to a natural treasure in the formof this strange glassy stalagmite formation.
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Kenny Cole
"Twister"2015Gouache on paper8.5" x 7"$500.00Kenny Cole depicts a wearied nude poledancer being ogled by a lone monocledpenguin complete with his top hat andcigarette holder. A plume of pink smokecurls skyward as a twister stirs up acloud in the distance. Though thepenguin is diminutive compared to thedancer we assume that he plays the roleof overlord, careless of the stress andstrain of the dancer, patientlyobserving her duress. All is schematiccolor suggesting an underlying note ofpageantry and custom.
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Kenny Cole
"The Count Annoyed the Peasants"2016Oil and acrylic on mounted board14" x 11"$1800.00Robert Egert paints a highly stylizedfigure as a color field abstractionthat pushes and pulls thepositive/negative space of thepanel's surface. Half ungulate halfhuman, wearing one red sock on alifted foot and a stray "comb-over"hair blown back like a whip about tobe cracked, we sense menace. Yetthere is very little to fear as hiscorporeal substance is nothing but arolling, flapping sheet, a papertiger. A second exploration starts toreveal the shapes and silhouettescrowding in and around from withinthe negative voids, a regal eaglebetween the legs, a bony arm about toelbow the eagle's beak and nosy nosespoking and sniffing all around.
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Kenny Cole
"Shoe Salesman"2014Sepia ink and gouache on paper8" x 6" $550.00In Jeff Ackerman's "Shoe Salesman"we look for the identity of anOverlord, but circle around andaround only to conclude that almostany of the characters in thistableaux are capable of playing thatrole. The figure in the upper leftseems to be striding towards theviewer, his tie blown back, lefthand reaching into his jacket pocketand expression wiped out by thecrystalline facets of his geometrichead. The live coin in the lowerright could easily represent anOverlord, after all who else getsimmortalized in relief? Yet why notview the dangling female legs asOverlord...offering or receiving ashoe in reverse Cinderella fashionto a promising gent from below?
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Kenny Cole
"Poker Chip"2014Graphite on 140lb archival paper10" x 10"$500.00Amy Stacey Curtis has been staging solo biennialsin Maine for over a decade. As part of herfundraising efforts she creates drawings to sell,each grouping relating to the particular theme ofthe biennial. This drawing was created for"Matter" her eighth biennial in 2014. "PokerChip" fits nicely into the Overlord theme inthat, not only is it strikingly symmetrical fromevery cardinal point, but the object itself isradiant like a sunburst. This makes it, on visualinformation alone, suggestive of a Holy Wafer ormeditative mandala. A consideration of the pokerchip as a social artifact additionally carrieswith it the oppressive psychological grip thatgambling, fortune hunting and the idea of moneyfor nothing can hold upon underlings that fallprey to siren call of the Almighty Overlord thatis money.
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Kenny Cole
"Arab Spring"2011Monoprint$300.00Nora Tryon’s “Arab Spring”suggests a politically chargedenergy as the critical ingredientthat might be thawing the seasonof change. Her Gothic rainbowconstructed with nervous,scratchy lines vibrates andreverberates over a collection ofhaunted, floating eyes,suggesting an awakening from adeep dark sleep, soon tochallenge their overlord.
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Kenny Cole
"The Messenger"2016acrylic on canvas with carved woodframe15” x 12” $1800.00Kathy Weinberg integrates atraditionally carved frame into herpainting. We see a mannequin of sortsholding its hat in hand, a gesture ofhumility amplified by the sight of themessenger's missing head. It's not astretch to imagine that this is theoppressed messenger of an Overlordthat resides deep in a dark mythicalwood. The palette here iscomplimentary; acid yellow trees andlavender figurine creating vibratorydaymare, complete with gnarly root,branch and flowing waters. Stiff andone with a furniture-like base weexpect the messenger to shuffle backinto the wood in stop-animationjerkiness leaving us to fill in theblanks.
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Kenny Cole
"Idol"2013Screen print edition of 100,signed29.7 cm x 21 cm $150.00Aleksandra Waliszewska is knownfor her depictions of adolescentgirls who are often battling theirway through an array of sciencefiction goblins, animals andslug-like demons. These heroinesseem to represent a largervulnerability and express agreater empathetic vision. Hereour heroine seems a bittriumphant. Despite beingunclothed except for shoes anddwarfed by her animal friends, sheis nonetheless unmolested andpoised, her army of over-sizedcuddly creatures restrained behindher in some sylvan arena establishher as supreme Overlord.
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Kenny Cole
"The First Mask #1"2015Ink on rice paper9.25" x 12.75"$250.00Kimberly Callas presents a visage of an archetypal being, ourOverlord, from her “Bearded Women” series. Her technique, whichutilizes very liquid medium on delicate rice paper, has createdan aura of radiant wrinkles emanating from the figure’scountenance producing a religious undertone to her “OriginStories” themed work.
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Kenny Cole
"Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T.(One Man War On Terror)" page #1 2015ink on bristol board17" x 11"$550.00Ben Marra is an Americanillustrator and comic bookartist. His work has been mostlyself-published in his ownimprint: Traditional Comics. Thisis a working ink drawing for pageone of his self published Comic"Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T.(One Man War on Terror)" in whichhe renders the main character,who goes only by his code nameO.M.W.O.T., surrounded by hiscommon activities; hanging outwith babes, meeting contacts,fighting people and lookingsharp. He is the Overlord of this“no holds barred” male fantasyworld, simply stated. We thencome to understand the complexstate of current affairs as
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bottled into the guise of onemasculine superhero, making goodversus evil a convenientlypackaged narrative as acted outthrough a singular persona. Witha drawing style that isreminiscent of pinball machinegraphic illustration, his touchis sharp, primitive and of highcontrast, giving the male powerfantasy message a nicelyover-simplified delivery asescapist entertainment.
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Kenny Cole
"Bake Off"1994Contact print of constructed negative14" x 11"$100MJ Viano Crowe’s contact print of aconstructed negative titled “The BakeOff”, has a setting that is morepsychological than literal. The imageis bisected by a suited 50’s stylemale figure, separating the two femalefigures into left and right tableaux.The right hand figure confronts uswith a robotic gaze as shemechanically dumps out a Bundt cake.One feels that the Overlord hastrapped her in her domestic cage. Thefemale on the left is engaged with theexiting male, their hands have becomean abstract tangle, yet her gaze isaverted, just an ornament atop afruity desert within a bottomlessblack void.
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Kenny Cole
"Id, Ego, Super Ego"1995Contact print of constructed negative14" x 11"$100.00MJ Viano Crowe presents a constructedinner space, arranged altar-like as astack of irregular rectangles toppedwith a roof-like triangle. Theirarrangement seems to suggest anunfolded envelope or altarpiece thatmight normally be folded or lockedshut, but for the desperation of thefigures within; facets of the psyche,each one a potential overlord, thatare exposed momentarily in some kindof domestic turmoil.
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Kenny Cole
"Confidential"2015Cretacolor aqua monolith pencil,collage, stamps14" x 11"$125.00Jennifer Beinhacker’s “Confidential”suggests surprise and conspiracy as anarray of figures act out vignettes ofthe story within a midnight blackbackground. Her “white line” renderingglows like an x-ray and folksyoutsider style suggests a contemporarytake on a possible biblical expulsionmyth, with a confused God-likeOverlord and primped up she-queensbracketing and blocking the panickedfleeing couple.
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Kenny Cole
"01 to 05 Seconds"Graphite on paper22" x 30"Rodney Ewing created a series of drawings that document time inminutes and seconds. Time is a human's ultimate Overlord and in thisdrawing we see the specter of a skull as a pentimento-like mementomori buried in the background. He punctuates each stenciled numericdisplay with thoughts, stenciled out in a generic "Brush Stroke"font face. The surface is greasy and smudged adding a viscousquality to his plodding sentiments, of which we sense that he haschosen to finally air out as confessed truths tortured out of him bythe poking finger of our Overlord: time.
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Kenny Cole
"Stand Like This"2015Foam, plywood, cotton, drawerslides, oil paint, Band-Aid70.5" x 29" x 5"Lara Nasser has sculpted a folkdevice in the form of an interactivehuman arm. It is based on theoriesof power postures and she hasisolated the arm in order todemonstrate a point A to point Bmovement. It's a "do nothingmachine" who's undercurrent ofsocial implications referenceswomen's struggles in trying toachieve equality in the workplace,or contending with self image andself confidence in an essentiallymale dominated world. We literally"exercise" the dummy arm in order to"see" or "feel" the absurdity of agesture intended to overcomeoppression, implicating us asenabling Overlords.
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Kenny Cole
Antenna2011Graphite on paper on panelMelinda Barnes diminutive and finely rendered antenna harks to the nearpast when T.V. was a singular technology that both united us andisolated a whole society. It was the first of the technology Overlordsthat we willingly sold our souls to and came to us as a radio signalfrom the heavens. Here we view the wispy, spidery armature reaching upinto the foggy void, a lone sentinel whose unique configurationestablishes its identity as an early foray into technologicalconectivity.
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Kenny Cole
"Rarefied Air" NYC Collection, Brooklyn Museum, 2014 - 2016Glass jar, museum air | edition of 92.75" x 2.5 "$1400.00Paula Lalala makes art that involves her own personal struggles to behuman and an artist. Often it is a biographical exploration of her lifeexperiences, which she then forms into interactive experiences for theviewer, whether that is a game, sensory environment or one on oneinteraction with her, the artist. The dynamic between artist, viewer andinstitutions designed to enable this dynamic are engaged here with herpiece "Rarefied Air". Paula institutionalizes the Art Museum institution,the ultimate art world Overlord, by creating E.A.R., Enhanced ArtResources, A contemporary fine art manufacturing, research, and consultingfirm. Paula simply walks into an art museum with a jar and captures itsair, a entrepreneurial gesture that becomes the basis for her independentparallel institution. We are now brought into Paula's world, a place ofengagement and self-made opportunity, where we as participants can learnto generate our own art experiences and challenge the Overlordian gripinstitutions impose on culture.
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Kenny Cole
"The Truth"2015Pen on paper22.9 x 30.5 cm (9 x 12 inches)$400.00Hye Ryung Na presents a denseoverlay of two texts, one in hernative Korean and the other English.This obscurifurcation reflects anervous affiliation with pasttrauma. As a survivor, her overlordis the specter of that experience,which she struggles to wipe out asfinely rendered bands in an all-overtreatment of the picture plane. Theend result becomes a vibranttestament, schematically coloredlike a striped flag, but texturedlike a knitted sweater and signedwith one last tear drop creating asmudge in the lower right handcorner.
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Kenny Cole
"Spare Change"2013Photograph24" x 18"$1200.00Terrence Sanders spent a yearphotographing the homeless indowntown LA. Homeless himself at age16, Sanders' perspective wassympathetic and questioning, "Whatare the forces that contribute totheir predicament and what would bethe one thing that, if happened,would begin to resolve theirpredicament?" The answers revealedthat ordinary life problems causeand sustain homelessness. TheOverlord then becomes society atlarge, that chooses not "see" andthus allow it to perpetuate. Here wesee a person folded symmetricallyand compact as if they were to bepacked in a box, in a sleepingposture draped in hues and patternsthat blend into its surroundings.
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Kenny Cole
"Neptune"2016Bronze (unfinished)16" x 13" x 16"$3500.00Jeffery Ackerman has literally modeled ourOverlord in bronze. It is both an edifice andbust portraiture, half architectural and halfliving breathing being. It is a monument toconfidence consisting of a pair of islandsentinels, represented as stone and mortarstructures built to take advantage of thecurious chance that the orientation of two rockledges happen to look like Neptune emerging fora cigar break. Thus he has identified hisallegiance not so much with sea creatures, butrather the boardrooms of high finance, hislobster claw pincer showboating how tight a griphe is capable of inflicting on any competitor.Any hope for compassion from this being is lostin his expressionless visage, a cupolareminiscent of ones found on governmentalcapital buildings, churches or institutions,implying that our guy's noggin is just the tipof a massive iceberg.
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Kenny Cole
"Duel Girl"2015Reinforced polymer clay and ink onwood plinth12" x 12" x 18"$3000.00Don Doe's Overlord, represented herein this figurative sculpture isenmeshed onto an unsuspectingprincess. Is it her mythical id,muscular and aggressive, growing outof her or latching onto her, halfsylvan growth-form, half lupineshe-man? Her awareness of thisall-consuming force is tentative atbest, suggesting the immense degreeof vulnerability inherent in beinghuman and the degree to which wefail to foresee our owntranformations.
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Kenny Cole
"Fall to Fly"2015Watercolor, pastel on paper andcanvas39" x 36"$2000.00Alice Sfintesco often rendersfemales figures as silhouettes thatshe then fills with chromaticwashes, oddly stylized anatomicalparts or clown-like visages. Her"Fall to Fly" series depicts herfigures tossed about and helpless,trying to right themselves like acat and hopefully land feet first.In the context of "Overlord" we haveto ask what force has set thesefemales in motion and how willthings resolve? We know that thistension or struggle is complexdespite possibly being an unevenbattle between forces and we prayfor the gift of nine lives in orderto explore multiple options.
