Stefan Stux
reception 06/05 Sat. 6.00-8.00 06/3 - 07/10	BG Muhn New Paintings
B.G. Muhn New Paintings BG Muhns recent paintings seek to express the relationship between our irrational and spiritual selves. Painted in a combination of transparent layered images and strongly delineated black abstract shapes, the contrasting means can be read as inner worlds interrupted by reality, or everyday lives beset by flashes from the subconscious. Muhn finds inspiration in the indeterminate states of dreams and meditative silences, in which simplified forms and core images hint at revealing aspects of our psyche. The diffused fields of pastel color are interspersed with surrealistic juxtapositions: prostrate bodies, anxious expressions, animals and commonplace objects all expound upon the unknowable and indescribable. As Eleanor Heartney has written in Art in America, "What makes these images both disquieting and compelling is the sense that they are merely the visual manifestations of mysterious hidden forces Too vividly represented and too powerfully felt to be mere illusions, they nag at the viewers consciousness with unrelenting persistence." After studying journalism in Seoul, the Korean-born Muhn pursued art in the United States, and is currently a professor of painting at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Recent international group shows include "American Art Today" at the Art Museum at Miami International University, and the first Kwangju Biennale, Kwangju, Korea. PROJECT ROOM: Clay Ervin Sculpture Ervins iron and aluminum sculptures marry the seriality and simplicity of Minimalist forms with the specific content evoked by highly-detailed cast textures. Through the casting of familiar objects such as a shirt tucked into belted jeans or the bark of a tree, the intricate "skins" serve as a referential shorthand, bringing a human presence to the industrial refinement. Born in 1954, Ervin lives and works in New Jersey and has been included in shows at the Rosa Esman Gallery, New York and the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton.