GALLERI LOYAL (TORSGATAN 53)
Artist: BILL SAYLOR
Title: NO CONFUSION, BIG MISTAKES
GALLERI LOYAL + (TORSGATAN 59)
Artist: LIZ MARKUS
Title: WHAT WE ARE, WE’RE GOING TO WAIL WITH ON THIS WHOLE TRIP
At the Torsgatan 53 location Galleri Loyal presents a solo exhibition of paintings by New York artist Bill Saylor.
And at the Torsgatan 59 location the gallery presents a solo exhibition of paintings by Liz Markus.
BILL SAYLOR
For his debut solo exhibition with Galleri Loyal, Bill Saylor presents a new group of explosive oil paintings and drawings.
Central to the work is the struggle of dualities, a frenetic exploration of beauty and chaos. It is as if Saylor is battling with dangerous, dark forces and presenting us with the results in the form of his paintings. The success and intensity of Saylor’s work lies in his ability to succeed in using a trinity of force, structure and humor to create elegant abstract-figurative paintings. Like James Ensor at a Black Flag concert along with the fluid energy of action painting, the excitement lies in the fact that anything can happen.
Saylor has created what seem like protective shields against an unseen and ever-present force. As if to help cope with the difficult territory he is exploring, cult-like imagery and power creatures often obliquely enter the canvas, painted in oil with the casual ease of a drawing. Collaged elements are covered and concealed in the paint much in the way that thoughts exist in the subconscious.
Saylor navigates freely between gestural brushwork, alternatingly rough and detailed drawing, street tag-like text, and collage. While initially chaos seems to rule, a second look reveals an intrinsic balance. The tension created between the elements holds the composition together, achieving harmony. Saylor has found a territory where abstract expressionism, the rawness of punk rock, and pop art iconic imagery can coexist on one canvas.
Bill Saylor has exhibited internationally for many years with solo exhibitions in New York and Tokyo. In 2004, he was included in the exhibition “Contemporary Painters” curated by Alex Katz.
LIZ MARKUS
Taking a pop-art approach to the tradition of color-field painting, Liz Markus finds a successful territory between the abstract and figurative. Central to this group of paintings is the emergence of an “Easy Rider” figure from the fields of controlled color washes. A combination of motorcycle rebel and bearded hippie, this iconic figure with aviator sunglasses is used by Markus to portray an overseeing spirit of freedom and to bring back the forgotten ideals of peace.
Markus’s amazing sense of color guides her through the process which is a kind of controlled chaos. In the tradition of her heroes such as Morris Louis, Markus pours the paint, guiding it around the raw, unprimed canvas. Combine this process with her obsession with hippie culture and the result is a successful marriage of abstract and figurative with the imagery emerging from the painting in a kind of psychedelic rorschach test. Her technique lends itself well to the subject matter with the swirling batik and tie-dye patterns which can go from sunny, happy color and harmony to dark, moody, heavily saturated tones. The good and bad trips of psychedelia come to mind along with failed utopias and the decay of vision and innocence.
The titles of her paintings come from the music of the era, “Oh Mary, I’m In Deep Water”, “Everything’s Gonna Be Everything”, “Come and See Me When the World Has Set You Free” (John Phillips, Jimi Hendrix, America) suggesting the narrative in the abstraction.