Next Saturday, Subliminal Projects presents Spirit Animal, an exhibition by David Ellis and Kevin Earl Taylor. Ellis coming from New York and Taylor from San Francisco connects the east and west together in the Los Angeles art scene. Taylor’s paintings explore the surreal landscapes of wild and untamed space where animals reign superior. Using abstracted spheres, vertical horizons, and dripping foundations, he creates tension between reality and fantasy that questions the validity of nature’s truth. Symbolically the elephant and bear represent strength, power, dignity, and peace. This connection elevates each beast with thoughtful intelligence that exceeds human understanding of the power that they possess. This power is represented in the fixed gaze that each creature maintains, almost as if we were the beasts being studied, instead of the other way around. “In 1995 he received a B.F.A. from The Savannah College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited and published throughout the US, as well as internationally. Though primarily an oil painter, he also explores time based art forms such as sound and video”
Ellis painting also originates from the natural landscape, but lines and movement become further abstracted by the tension made by stark black and white lines that emanate from the background. Like a song, he plays nature’s power as a hard note that wails over the canvas in fluid motion. Elli’s grew up in rural North Carolina with music and a family of musicians but he never got around to learning how to play. Yet the music continues to be an inspiration for his works, in painting, installation, and public art around the world. Ellis “received a BFA from the Cooper Union… [and] in the early 2000s [he became ] the unofficial founder of the renowned Barnstormers, an art collective known for public projects in small-town communities in the American South”.
This show is set to open on September 13th, from 8-11pm.
All images provided by the gallery
Kevin Earl Taylor
Kevin Earl Taylor
David Ellis
David Ellis