Author: outlier

Gary Isaacs

Exhibition: November 15th, 2014-January 4th, 2015

CPR Interview: Click Here

Artist Statement: 

From the  I Ching  :   What takes place in the depths of one’s being, in the unconscious, can neither be called forth nor prevented by the conscious mind.

Back in 2008 I was in NYC visiting with my uncle Philip where for 50 years he’s lived in the same one room walk up just around the corner from Grand Central Station. I’ve always loved his place, It’s like a cross between an Appalachian shack and the Vatican. One night during my stay I awoke to find him sitting motionless at the edge of his bed.  Wearing only boxers,  his back was to me,  and I was startled to see that it was completely covered by a beautiful tattoo rendering of Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. I was so startled that I woke up again  . . . .  I had been dreaming. My uncle was in fact fast asleep, tattoo-less except for the faded “Shirley” on his left shoulder. 

Home in Denver several weeks later, I was walking past the Lions Lair for the zillionth time when  it spontaneously occurred  to me that it might be interesting to make a series of photographs all anchored by at least some portion of the Lions Lair façade . . .  “36 Views of the Lions Lair” .  It’s as simple as that. These images are photographs of both the Lions Lair itself and of moments visually sandwiched between myself and the façade of the Lions Lair. For the record, I’ve spent my fair share of hours and dollars inside of that place, probably more than some would advise calling attention to, and over the years I have made thousands upon thousands of photographs “inside” the Lair, but that’s another story. 

36 Views of the Lion’s Lair is not about my experience on the inside, and though I’ve also spent years photographing up and down the length of the once rough and tumble “longest, wickedest street in America” that is Colfax, these photographs are not particularly about that either. This is not some sort of social commentary, documentary, or lifestyle piece. I set out to create a body of work that nodded to the series of woodblock prints created by Katsushika Hokusai in early 1800’s Japan entitled 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Or, said another way, this is a collection of photographs that represent my conscious exploration of a specific limitation suggested to me by my unconscious. 

Where did my initial dream come from?  I don’t know. What did that dream mean?  I don’t know. The first time that I walked past the Lions Lair after having had that dream why did it occur to me to embark on this project? I don’t know. Would it have ever entered my mind to make these images had I not had that dream? I doubt it. All that I can say with certainty is that I feel that there is a direct, if not completely knowable, connection between the dream and the idea to make these photographs. 

About the Artist:

Unless one is willing to reveal themselves to the world the world  will not reveal itself to them. One will never be able to see more in their work than they are able to see in themselves and by the same token they  will not be able to not  see themselves in their own creations  . . . . .

Before I began photographing in earnest sometime during the mid 80’s my life had unfolded less like the chapters of a continuous narrative  and more like a succession of short stories with no apparent connection between them other than I happened to be there cast in the first person. By the time we moved the studio out of Union Station in 1998 my archive had swollen to roughly 200,000 negatives and I had become deeply embedded in a career that straddled a range of editorial and advertising assignments that I juggled along side an ongoing  series of personal projects. I’ve never been the kind of guy who had a “day job” and have always found a way to turn whatever I was truly inspired by into a full time gig. For the last thirty years “photography”  has been my passion, my vocation and a spiritual path all in one.

Photography by Amanda Tipton

Lauri Lynnxe Murphy

Exhibition: October 11th, 2014-November 8th, 2014

Artist Statement:

In 2013, the oil and gas industry in the United States was responsible for an average of approximately twenty oil spills per day.  However: that’s only accounting for the ones we know of, as many oil-producing states don’t require reporting to the public.  The most reported on oil spill of all, the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, still wreaks havoc in our environment, despite propaganda to the contrary and claims of over 210 million gallons of crude being gobbled up by bacteria and “dispersed” by Corexit.  In reality, there is no correcting it; the impact is permanent and devastating, in water or on land.  But the spill is only visible evidence of our addiction, the minor overdose before the junkie scores again.

As a child, I remember looking from the car windows on road trips at giant mechanical dinosaurs drinking the fluids of their ancestor’s remains from the center of the earth.  These same road trips would often leave me sick, with crushing, nauseous migraines induced by a sensitivity to the fumes from those same burning fluids. The sheer multiplicity of material forms crude oil takes on in just those remembered road trips is akin to bathing in the stuff: the gasoline the car is powered by and the oil coursing through it’s engine, the tar in the asphalt under the wheels, the plastic of the car seats and car parts and containers and water bottles and plastic bags and polyester fabric in our clothing and the upholstery…and before the car, with Dad rousing us early to go we encountered the shower curtain, the shampoo, the contact lenses in our eyes, the antihistamine for our allergies, the soap and deodorant, the soles of our shoes…all of it.  Ending oil is not as simple as driving less.  Americans are responsible for using around three and a half gallons of petroleum per day, even when we stay home.  Petroleum is ubiquitous, one can scarcely imagine modern life without it.  

We are bringing to the surface our interior, endlessly, though it is not endless.  Drawing out the center of our earth like blood from a body, yet there is no rapid regeneration, no stem cells replacing what is lost, nothing fixed by orange juice and a cookie.  We leave these drippings of our lifestyles, our existence, in clots on the sea, in dribbles across the landscape, from nano-particles to giant pools.  We bring forth the material from underground and lay it across the body of the land like an oozing, blood-encrusted scar, and return it to the earth as tidbits for sea birds to feed to their young on remote islands, and mountains of garbage that children scramble over in other countries.  Our appetite is voracious.

The lament is one of our oldest art forms, left to turn to when our grief and horror overcomes us.  These works are my lament, for a planet we have abused and bled dry.  And yet, even in making this lament, I am a creature of the modern world; I turn to the materiality of my subject, petroleum.  From paintings made with asphaltum (or, as known outside of the printmaking world, bitumen, which flows through the tar sands pipelines) on Yupo, a polyethylene paper, to resin, to plastics and to oil itself.  These things exist in the world already, I cannot deny their existence nor resist the fascination with them as substances, despite my regrets.  

Lament

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Listen, children:

Your father is dead.

From his old coats

I’ll make you little jackets;

I’ll make you little trousers

From his old pants.

There’ll be in his pockets

Things he used to put there,

Keys and pennies

Covered with tobacco;

Dan shall have the pennies

To save in his bank;

Anne shall have the keys

To make a pretty noise with.

Life must go on,

And the dead be forgotten;

Life must go on,

Though good men die;

Anne, eat your breakfast;

Dan, take your medicine;

Life must go on;

I forget just why.

About the Artist:

Lauri Lynnxe Murphy has spent the majority of her professional life in Denver, Colorado, where she managed to survive as a working artist since graduating from Metropolitan State College of Denver in 1996.  She has started co-op galleries, been a community organizer and advocate, opened galleries, studio buildings, and community screen printing shops, built exhibitions in the backs of rental trucks for the Democratic National Convention, curated shows, created spectacle and taken guerilla actions to the streets, all while maintaining a rigorous studio practice.

In 2005 she was the first recipient of Westword’s Mastermind Award in Visual Arts, and in 2006 was chosen Best Arts Advocate by the Rocky Mountain News.  In 2010 she curated an exhibition for the Biennial of the Americas, titled Objectophilia, in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver.  She has shown her work regionally throughout the west and in Toronto, Canada.  She moved to Columbus, Ohio to pursue her MFA at the Ohio State University on fellowship, and spent the summer of 2011 at the School of Visual Arts Summer Residency in New York before completing her Masters degree in 2012.

Her work is currently concerned with nature and our relationship to it, particularly in concern to mutation, illness, and the conversations and propaganda surrounding environmental politics.  By employing references to the souvenir and the miniature, the abject and the uncanny, she endeavors to make ideas and materiality meet by working with living systems such as honeybees and bacteria, new technologies and socio-politically charged materials and imagery.  She is currently building a tiny house on wheels in order to drive across the country having conversations with ordinary people about climate change and making a film about it.  

Photography by: Amanda Tipton

Jared David Paul Anderson

Opening Reception: Sept. 5th, 2014

Exhibition: Sept 5th-Oct. 4th, 2014

As We See It – Curator’s Notes

Artist Statement: 

I’m feeling Patriotic these days. Not in a shoot ’em up kind of way, but rather, how to be culturally relevant and visually poignant in America right now, today. 

I want to be American. I want to be a New Patriot. What is that?

I come from a Rocket Scientist and a Farm Girl. I come from the stinging pines and Granite Mountains of Colorado. 

We are who we were. 

That is a start, in defining what it is to be a New Patriot. Take a look back and respect and pray for kin. 

Check out these overalls?  These were my Gpa’s. He went into a field every day, he was missing some fingers from a farm accident, his name was Anard. When he tore his overalls, Gma sewed them back to a functioning state. 

It gets better because he tore his overalls about one hundred times and my lovely Gma sewed them one hundred times, and I guarantee, it happened without qualm or complaint. 

If that ain’t American? 

We’re getting closer. 

I’ll be honest; I see too many American voices shut down by too much authority. 

I’m Pissed off.

But not passively pissed off. I am making this art and stirring and feathering. 

Back in 1973, in New York City, Mayor Koch wanted to prevent graffiti by releasing wolves on the NYC subway lines. 

Graffiti is American.

Release wolves in the forest, not the subway.

Down with Koch. 

One more problem I have is this: People who do not get Gay Marriage don’t want other people in Love to get Gay Married. 

WTF America? Creating a barrier to any form of love is highly UnAmerican, Simple as that. 

My complaint is in regards to tolerance, and lack thereof. The New Patriot is active in voice versus authority. It is about sewing a tear and not complaining. To be American is to invite love of any form.

Let’s all remember, there exists an American Majesty and Elegance.

Would Ice Cube and Clint Eastwood kick it? 

I think so, but not without difference and discussion. Iowa is what they have in common in this video of mine. Iowa is in the middle. One guy black, one white, so what? One dude in the country, one in the city -ok, sure. 

Boyz chillin’ N the hood is American, and so are bridges over rivers in Madison County.  Did you know there are 20 counties in America named after our 4th President of these glorious states, and hundreds of streets named after Madison? We are who we were. 

Ok closer. 

Dennis Hopper got shot up by a good ol’ boy who didn’t like a finger from a friend. 

Donald Turnupseed’s truck took out James Dean’s Porsche cause he was driving a silver roadster on a silver highway. 

Blinded by the Light. 

Steve Irwin was wrestling a fish, a big ol’ fish, with a spear as a nose. It pricked his courageous fragile heart, and we lost a Hero that quick. I know he is not technically American. But he is.

Americans die. The New Patriot respects all deaths.    

The New Patriot is vulnerable and brave. The New Patriot is tolerant and pissed and vocal and in love with country and ruthlessly turning some strange dream into a curious reality….all while having a good deep belly laugh.

I am Happy. LOL.

(Thanks Robin Williams, R.I.P. -this show is all yours. You are a New Patriot)!

-JDP 

Denver, CO August 2014

About the Artist:

Jared David Paul Anderson grew up in Colorado with three evil sisters, a master quilter and a great hunter.  He has studied art in Australia, Czech Republic, China and Cuba. His work has been shown in Los Angeles, and across Colorado, including the McNichols Building, Buell Theater, Leon Gallery, and Cherry Creek Arts Festival.  Jared thrives on seeking out exotic art practices and curious ideas as inspiration for his art.  Jared pays the bills as an Art Installer and soothes his soul by spending time in the mountains,  He is half way to climbing all the Fourteeners in Colorado.  The Great American Wilderness informs a great majority of Jared’s work.  When granted one wish Jared asked for the arts in Denver to be as relevant and supported as sports.

Photography by: Amanda Tipton

Opening Reception: August 2nd, 2014

Exhibition: August 2nd-August 31st, 2014

www.travishetman.com

Instagram: @travishetman

As We See It. -Curator’s Notes

Photography by Amanda Tipton

Nothing is Yours to Keep explores the under-the-surface realities of who we really are. This body of work, created using graphite, acrylic, spray paint, and found photographs, sets out to deconstruct and perhaps even playfully attack the powerful notion that we are an ego locked up in a bag of bones, quite separate from the external world. It works instead toward visualizing a more interconnected concept of identity, which involves everything all at once. Navigating between meaning and meaninglessness in this new concept of what it means to be an “I”, there is of course always plenty of room for chuckle at the absurdity and beauty of it all.
 
This show will consist of site-specific installations and 2D work. The centerpiece of this show is a cluster of hundreds of images coordinated and created by Hetman. This cluster serves as a metaphor and the culmination of the idea that what seems like individual pieces (i.e. our personal identities and the “stuff” we seem to be surrounded by) is on some level one interconnected reality.
 
Bio:
 
Travis Hetman grew up in Minnesota, enjoying the great northern wilderness and the mighty Mississippi. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota in 2007.
 
While studying art he also played in the Minneapolis-based band, A Night In the Box. Touring brought him through Denver where he eventually settled in to a new home in the fall of 2012. Delighted by the welcoming energy of the Denver art scene, Travis has shown his work at several coffee shops and various galleries throughout Denver. Working primarily with drawing, painting and mixed media, his work juxtaposes the abstract and representational to explore largely existential themes.
 
Apart from solo efforts in visual art, Travis is the co-founder and lead artist at Boxwood Pinball, a handmade art-pinball company here in Denver. He also works collaboratively with his wife, Anna Hetman, to produce art, crafted goods and curiosities under the alias “Lost Champions,” and plays banjo in the local folk outfit, The Hooks and The Hollows. 

animum explorari is the most recent interdisciplinary print and sound installation by Denver-based artist, Jordan Knecht.   The site-specific installation will be exhibited at Leon Gallery from June 28, 2014 to July 26, 2014. It is a continuation and reinterpretation of a body of work, entitled, “The Relationship Between Printmaking and Sound”, which was installed in Amherst,  Massachusetts in 2012. 

For this site-specific installation, Knecht has built a room inside of Leon Gallery.  The room is obscured by black curtains running floor to ceiling. Patrons pass through the curtains and enter a small hallway. At the end of the hallway is a door. Patrons enter the installation  room through the door. The room is 12 feet tall with a 10 square-foot floor. The walls are entirely covered in wheat-pasted risograph photo-collages and then tiled together. The collages are created from remnants of inkjet prints of digital collages of ink-drawings on an intaglio print. At the center of the ceiling, dim light emanates from behind a large circular drawing. Speakers are hidden in the walls with different sound sources. In order to see details on the walls around them, patrons must use supplied handmade flashlights. When parts of the walls are illuminated, volumes of certain sound sources are affected. Although not all sound sources may be audible at the same time, they play on a continuous loop. Once each sound source has begun, they will not coincide again in the same manner for the duration of the exhibition. Monoculars are supplied so that patrons may see the details of the artwork on the ceiling. Magnifying glasses are also supplied so that patrons may more closely inspect the surroundings.

Space Considerations – Due to the space limitations of the exhibit, there is a limit of ten patrons allowed in the installation at a time. Patrons are encouraged to sign up for half-hour and hour slots in advance. Stop-ins are welcomed, but it is advised that priority goes to patrons who have already signed up. 

Exploration Kits – Before patrons enter the installation, they must trade some form of identification for an exploration kit. The kit contains a handmade flashlight, a monocular, a magnifying glass, and a 160-page book. 

– The book, entitled, ignoring the path, is a curated collection of writings which were composed over the course of four years on the borders of one of the main drawings in the installation. The writings serve as poetic/ suggestive access points into the visual and sonic environments. The book was written and designed by Jordan Knecht. It was risograph-printed in collaboration with Issue Press, a fine-art publishing company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

– The magnifying glass is supplied to encourage closer inspection of the surrounding environment. 

– The monocular is supplied to enable patrons to view the details of the artwork on the ceiling. 

– The flashlight is supplied to enable patrons to view the walls surrounding them (the installation is very dark). Each flashlight was handmade by Knecht. 

12-Hour Music Performance – On July 5, 2014, Jordan Knecht has curated a 12-hour improvised music performance in the site-specific installation from 10a.m. to 10p.m. Jordan will be performing along with Evergreen-based musician, Chaz Prymek, of the band Lake Mary, and Brooklyn-based sound artist, Nathan Wheeler. Other local musicians will be joining the performance throughout the day. The group will improvise in collaboration with the ever-evolving sound environment of the installation. Patrons will be encouraged to sign up for half-hour slots in advance. Donations ranging between $5-30 dollars are strongly encouraged, however no one will be turned away based on monetary limitations. There will be perks for different donation ranges. Stop-ins are welcomed, but it is advised that priority goes to patrons who have already signed up.

Commodities – There is a plethora of opportunities to purchase parts of animum explorari.

Donations are strongly encouraged before entering the exhibit. There are different perks based on different levels of donation. Perks include, but are not limited to, scrap collages from the walls, pre-orders of the lossless digital audio release of the 12-hour musical performance, the exhibition book (entitled, ignoring the path), 16×20” archival inkjet prints (original source material for the collages), exploration kits, 4×4’ inkjet reproductions of the ceiling circle, 2×4’ panels of the walls of the installation, and 4×8’ panels of the walls of the installation. Perks may be added or removed based on availability. 

Artist Statement – Below is the artist statement for animum explorari, which is featured in the book, ignoring the path.

“Sometimes the only real evidence of art and life are the patterns in the sediment they leave behind.  The sediment is manifested in a variety of mediums. The medium of the work presented in animum explorari is the sediment itself:  thoughts caught on paper moments before they dissolve, visual scraps gathered and piled together, melded moments of an auditory history, by-products of mindless working…

It is difficult to concisely explain four years of fleeting thoughts about disjointed bodies of work that have managed to find their ways into the same inhabitance. Overarching themes have anchored, only to be whisked away. 

Just as disparate drawn lines overlap to create exciting new composites, the seemingly disparate thoughts of this book may overlap to introduce different composite ideas.  You are encouraged to read in any order.  The overlapping ideas will hopefully serve as loose-handed guides with which to delve deeper. From there, you are free to explore as you wish. Please be considerate of the space you inhabit and enjoy.”

Shiny Food Fever Clearance

While geomancing in the three-acre parking lot adjacent to an area Super Target, Nicholas Toll was visited by an apparition of self-cannonized entrepreneurial saint Bartholomew “Papi” Gimmix, encircled in a halo of fluorescent light. He gave forth a powerful sermon concerning the spiritual underpinnings of 21st century material culture, and, despite the way it may seem, the deep existential importance of being able to have anything you want whenever you want it. 

Based on these teachings, Toll set forth making devotional packaging for the products and ideals espoused by the channel.  As Toll tends rather steeply towards the abstract, it is unclear how faithful his transcriptions are to the word of the amphetamine-sotted prophet. The boxes, however, remain curious monuments to lives ruled by products.

From May 16th-June 16th, 2014 Nicholas Toll will transform Leon Gallery into a fine art super food art installation with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works engaging the viewer in a multi-modal art experience. Toll is an artist that will make an cogent impact on the Denver art scene and Leon Gallery is honored to help him along on his noble quest.

Bio: Nicholas Toll

Originally from New Mexico, Nicholas Toll has shown extensively throughout the US and Italy in his 12 year career as a painter, performer, event producer, cook, and haphazard romantic. A devoted student of both human folly and the mystery of nutrition, he currently lives in Denver and loves the idea of spreading his art to the fine folks of this grand artistic city.

Photography by Amanda Tipton. www.amandatipton.com

Opening Reception: March 8th, 2014 7-12pm

Exhibition: March 8th-April 6th, 2014

Overview: 

“Several years ago, while shooting a wedding, I had the lovely good fortune to meet a touring band who had flown in to play for the celebration. The day changed the direction of my photography and my life. We stayed in touch and a couple months later I found myself in Washington, D.C. in a studio as the band These United States recorded an album called Everything Touches Everything. It was a brand new experience for me and, as it turned out, one I loved. I spent the next several years touring with TUS and working with many other wildly talented and amazing folks such as Denver locals Paper Bird and The Lumineers; as well as Ben Kweller, The Mynabirds, Y La Bamba, Vandaveer, The Head and The Heart, Rubblebucket and many more bands it’s possible you’ve never heard of, but should love with all your heart. 

It is a world that few people get to experience. It is magical and exhausting and inspiring and gratifying. It is long days, lengthy drives and late nights with little rest. Hours are spent in vans and buses traveling highways and side roads to arrive in time to grab a quick bite, check emails, run through a few songs for sound-check, grab a quick nap and try to catch up on everything you have left behind at home. It means spending 24 hours a day with your band-mates…they become your family. It means being able to do things on the run, being able eat what is put in front of you and being able to sleep in nearly any situation. It’s not glamorous and it’s not easy.

The lovely and amazing folks I have met on the road are ridiculously inspiring to me. They do this because they love it. I have been so fortunate to share this and to photograph this. It’s the moments no one ever sees when they go to a show that I love so much. The day to day and the hour to hour of life on the road. The photos collected here are a reflection of this life. “As the Road is Long” is the story of many bands and the experiences that connect them as they put into the world their amazing art. Enjoy.”      -Sarah Law

Photography by: Amanda Tipton

BLOOD+SISTER is an ever-expanding collaboration project between painter and custom tattooer Sandi Calistro and photographer Blair Pascal. Each photographic portrait included within the exhibition is hand painted after print, composing a seamless interconnection of two art forms and the synthesis of two individual artist’s visions. The title, The Blood of the Covenant is Thicker Than the Water of the Womb is appropriated from the ancient proverb insinuating that the bond between comrades is stronger than that of family alliances. 

BLOOD+SISTER functions as a channel into the process specific to women creating together. At the start resides the collaboration between subject and photographer. The female muse tends to occupy an uneasy and shifting place at the intersection of the body and it’s representation. The photographs in BLOOD+SISTER engage that precarious space between the inherent passive nature of photography and an active representation of the subject. The intimate treatment provided by Calistro’s illustration evokes sentiment at the same time conjures thoughtfulness of the artist’s hand. BLOOD+SISTER is the embodiment of female collaboration.

Photography by: Amanda Tipton.  

First exhibited at Leon on January 11th, 2014, this show has since traveled to Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO on Oct 10th, 2014 and Substrate Gallery in Los Angeles in honor of the dedication of John Denver’s Hollywood Star of Fame on October 24th, 2014.

All photographs are for sale exclusively through Leon. These photographs were captured by John Denver during his adventurous and beautiful life are printed in a limited edition of 10. We can ship worldwide. They come matted and framed, with the exception of the open edition prints. These are sold as the prints alone. 

Purchasing only available through 7S Management. Please call the gallery at 303-832-1599 to learn more.

John Denver on his craft:

Over the years I’ve always enjoyed taking photos as a way of relaxing. For me it offers a wonderful opportunity to stop and focus on this moment right here and forget all the other things. I’m less secure [showing my photos than giving a live concert], because my photography is about the way I look at things.

–

The things I like the most in photography are color, light and composition. I travel a lot. If there is an interesting scene that catches my eye, I photograph it to show life the way it really is – especially if there is something funny in it. I like pictures that let me enjoy myself as a human being.

–

I’ve been in situations where I’ve so much felt the intrusions of the camera that it’s difficult for me to take pictures of people. It has to be a situation where the person is totally comfortable or far away. I’ve never looked at the sad things, I don’t think I’ve taken anything that you’d see and say, ‘Oh, Lord.’

–

I have two 35mm cameras and eight lenses, and I have a Hasselblad I use once in a while. I get a lot of flack about it. My camera bag is the heaviest thing on the tour.

*Excerpts from interviews with John Denver
in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News in 1983.

www.johndenver.com

In the Reign of King Harad IV Jewelry by Alex Boyd and Miniature Paintings by Yuri Zupancic

Opening Reception: Dec. 7th, 2013 7-10pm

Exhibition: Dec 7th, 2013-January 4th, 2014

Overview:

The title of the final exhibition for 2013 at Leon is inspired from a short story by Steven Millhauser that was published in the New Yorker on April 10, 2016. In the Reign of King Harad IV is a story of a maker of miniatures who is celebrated for the uncanny perfection of his work. Over time the Master becomes restless and obsessed with making things smaller, and smaller until one day, no one can see his creations any more and the kingdom thinks he is mad. Alex Boyd and Yuri Zupancic are also masters of making things miniature, one through his metalsmithing, the other by painting masterpieces on microchips.

Alex, is a celebrated jewelry artisan who has been creating for over ten years and is the nephew of famed jeweler, Michael Boyd. Michael gave Alex his first set of tools and has taught Alex throughout the years. Alex is grateful for the opportunity his uncle has given him and has been qualified to teach as his assistant at workshops across the United States. Alex Boyd’s jewelry work goes far beyond wearable gems, his works are sculptures in the miniature using precious gems and metals. In all of Alex’s pieces, a passionate care has been lavished on the smallest and least visible of details. Over 50 new works will be created exclusively for this opening and will be on display and for sale through the 4th of January.

Yuri Zupancic is a self taught painter, assemblage artist, and performance artist. While some artists are using computers to create digital art, Yuri chooses to use the microchips within these computers as his canvas. “Computers provide ways to share passionate thoughts, yet the hardware itself seems cold and sterile … so I paint life into it.” Yuri’s paintings on microchips are an attempt to broaden our perspective of modern electronics and acknowledge their position as extensions of the mind and its sentimental qualities. Yuri uses oil paint and his own eyelashes (and others that collectors have begun to mail to him) to create the brushes used to paint these miniatures. Yuri is racing against his own medium…as microchips become smaller and smaller, so too does his paintings. For his exhibition at Leon, Yuri will be displaying over 25 masterpiece paintings on microchips. Viewers will have the opportunity to explore these works of art with magnifying glasses provided by the artist.

Artist Statement:

Alex Boyd: My work is a meditation on materials and their limits. An interaction between my hands, metal, stone and the wearers body. All pieces are produced by hand using techniques that are centuries or even millennia old. In an increasingly computerized world I take solace in being an anachronism. Objects formed from human hands contain an energy and dynamism unobtainable through any other means, as if the object is charged by its maker. The medium of jewelry and its inherent proximity to the wearers body is, for me, the most effective means of communicating that energy. An energy expressed through the languages of color, form and texture.

Yuri Zupancic: “Smaller and Faster” has replaced “Bigger and Better” as the leading catchphrase of commodities. I reflect this with my miniature paintings on microchips. From wild plants and animals to human tools and portraits, the range of subjects is diverse. I seek poetic images which raise questions and strike metaphorical chords when painted on microchips -the building blocks of the digital age.

The biggest frontier I see today is where nature and technology overlap. Mankind and our extensions (i.e. computers, cities) are essentially natural occurrences, thus move and evolve in the same dynamic patterns as the rest of the world. My paintings on microchips are an attempt to broaden our perspective of modern electronics and acknowledge their position as extensions of the mind and its sentimental qualities.

www.yuri-z.com

Photography by: Amanda Tipton