January 8 - February 19, 2022
From Kirk Hopper Fine Art:
“Who are we? Where are we? There are plenty of reasons to wonder, especially since the reference points we usually rely upon to situate ourselves are so many and so easily mistaken for others bound to lead us astray. What happens when we step outside our usual environments , only to find that we cannot go back, or that once back nothing seems the same? Rather than pose the simple questions that might shatter the illusion of reliable normalcy, we would just as soon pretend that we are sure of our surroundings, and sure of ourselves.
Rocha’s collages, assemblages and sculptures demonstrate an anti-aesthetic – a tendency to employ only the most functionally necessary means to execute a concept and to eschew qualities that make traditional art attractive – beauty, sensuality, rich material. Similarly, Blanchard’s “Talisman” paintings and two-sided, light-activated sculptures are prickly, abrasive and confrontational. Neither aim for a comforting sort of art, nor do they believe in the object as one of passive contemplation. Rather, Rocha and Blanchard intend their works to be provocations, the kind of shock treatments that jolt us into an examination of our own values and behaviors. There’s good reason for it: an increasing struggle over ideas and control is going on in our society. Accordingly, their works examine how hierarchy is expressed – who is included and who is left out.
At Kirk Hopper Fine Art, artists Gil Rocha (Laredo) and Victor Calise Blanchard (Houston) examine core issues that we are often reluctant to address. In the process, they challenge us to recognize something about ourselves and our border society. These artists work in radically different modes but share an activist stance: both reveal the mechanisms of power and vulnerability by literally and figuratively stripping away layers of aesthetic and behavioral pretension. At issue is the notion of skin – a membrane that wraps and protects us, but can just as easily be made vulnerable, as well as eroded and ravaged.”
Reception: January 8, 2022 | 6–8 pm
Kirk Hopper Fine Art (Riverfront Blvd.)
1426 North Riverfront Boulevard
Dallas, 75207 Texas
214-760-9230
Get directions