James Everett Stanley - Let It Burn
September 12 - October 31, 2009
Opening reception Saturday, September 12, 6-9pm.
James Everett Stanley, I'm here for the duration, 2009. Oil on canvas, 48" X 36".
Kinkead Contemporary is pleased to present Let It Burn, the gallery's second solo exhibition of new paintings by James Everett Stanley.
Let It Burn accelerates the timeless story of conflict to its final scene: Stanley presents us with work on fire, his subjects transfixed by the after-effects of destruction and loss. As ravens and vultures circle portraits and smoking landscapes, each painting becomes an artful unit of an eerie, soundless whole.
The show's title is a charged shorthand for human resignation; the subjects in Let It Burn are weary, bleary-eyed, and angry with intent. In the compelling narrative of this mysterious new work, one thing is clear - all that's come before has failed. The landscape is burning in a final cleansing of flame.
Working in both oil and watercolor, many of Stanley's new paintings are inspired by contemporary photojournalism, from the wildfires of California to the Middle East's makeshift memorials for the dead. Let It Burn explores the endgame of manmade conflict and natural disaster: what's left is burned and gazed upon, salvaged from explosions and memorialized in photographs.
As observed by Scott Indrisek in a recent issue of Whitewall magazine, Stanley's paintings "imagine a world much like our own - but subtly militarized, radicalized, and tinged with the possibility of violence." Let It Burn presents us with a portrait of finality that is well lit and hot; as forests burn, we encounter in Stanley's work the dark and rich beauty of the silence that follows a storm.
James Everett Stanley has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions at Kinkead Contemporary in Los Angeles, Freight & Volume Gallery and Nicholas Robinson in New York, and Bucket Rider Gallery in Chicago. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Columbia University in 2005, and has been awarded residencies from the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, Skowhegan, and the Fine Arts Work Center. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
