James Everett Stanley
The Garden
April 21 - June 2, 2007
how long has it been. 2007.
Oil on canvas. 20" X 16".
Kinkead Contemporary in collaboration with Scenic is proud to present “The Garden,” an exhibition of new paintings by James Everett Stanley. Masterly and innovative, these lush portraits are dynamic meditations on the continuum of social resistance.
The subjects of “The Garden” seem to populate a mythic landscape. Wearing masks and second-hand camouflage, they are post-historic warriors without traditional weaponry. Stanley has created a cast of characters who could be renegade mystics. The men and women in his paintings surround themselves with birds and flowers. They lay in wait in marshes and bind themselves with ferns and branches.
Stanley presents us with a soulful battle in which the gun is laid to rest; he makes “The Garden” a supernatural ground, where leaves and branches possess the transformative qualities of real protection. Each portrait evokes a lucid sense of its subject's decentralized identity. The low and measured glances of these warriors capture and flex the terrifying, mystical nature of survival. Stanley's men and women are waiting it out in the backcountry and are left for dead on hillsides, all with little sense of rank or hierarchy.
“The Garden” is a presentation of humanity that is drenched in beauty and driven by mystery. These paintings are plot twists in our modern tale of social progress. We watch their subjects run against the grain of our developed sensibilities, as Stanley artfully distills the human experience to a shortlist of essential components: man, the land, and true dominion.
About the Artist
James Everett Stanley received his MFA from Columbia University. In 2002 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and in 2005 he was accepted into the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Studio Program. In the past year he has exhibited at both Freight + Volume, NY, and Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago.
About the Organizer
Scenic is a New York-based arts advisory and curatorial agency founded by Simon Watson and Craig Hensala. With 35-years combined experience in the contemporary arts scene, Scenic has created more than 20 solo and group exhibitions over the past three years in association with clients such as Amnesty International, Bergdorf Goodman, Chanel, Coalition for the Homeless/ARTWALK NY, Susan & Michael Hort Collection, Kavi Gupta Gallery, LightBox, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Planned Parenthood/LA, Roberts & Tilton, Rhona Hoffman Gallery and others.
