Leon is honored to announce the opening reception for The Age of Re-Enchantment, an exhibition of new work by local artist, Markus Puskar. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, November 16th, between 6pm and 10pm, and the exhibition will be on view through Saturday, January 4th, 2025. With a distinctive rhythmic dynamism and reverberant stylistic approach, somewhat reminiscent of the Italian Futurist movement, Puskar’s paintings and drawings explore themes of mysticism, self-reflection, and a desire to engage with the world through a renewed sense of wonder.
Artist Bio: Markus Puskar is a self taught artist painting and drawing in Denver. By day is a social worker and serves on the board of directors at Joy’s Kitchen, a food rescue organization. In 2023, he released an audio documentary series for KGNU Boulder / Denver exploring the ways that the food system has been transformed by commercialism, called Candy Jail. This is his first solo exhibition.
Artist Statement: The work explored in this show is an investigation into the regular cycle of enchantment and disillusionment in which we often find ourselves as human beings. As we move towards and away from the divine, the way that we relate to one another through art has transformed, having gone from work made for the gods, to work that celebrates and investigates the self as the primary subject. Feeling that we are at the end point of one of these cycles, with “rational” cynicism so prevalent, my practice unconsciously started drifting towards the spiritual, towards a sense of wonderment and gratitude that I had concealed from even myself. I found myself casting off the cold rationality that told me sincerely expressing awe was uncouth. I made these works with the intention of trying to create my own visual language for the divine, or at least my experience of it. I drew on inspiration from folk art and spiritual art, particularly that of Northern New Mexico. In my admiration for works like the Santuario de Chimayo (Chimayo, NM), I asked myself what sort of visual language I would create if I was tasked with designing and mapping out my own sense of awe.
