March 22 - May 3, 2025
From McClain Gallery:
“McClain Gallery is pleased to present Bradley Kerl: Magic Hour, an exhibition of new paintings by the Houston-based artist. Known for his vibrant paintings of the everyday infused with thoughtful light, Kerl’s new work takes this exploration to a specific moment when twilight turns sunlight through the trees into magic. In Magic Hour, these “micro-moments” are shared with the viewer so they, too, can feel the casual sublimity of the natural world along with the artist. This is Kerl’s first solo exhibition at McClain Gallery.
Kerl is captivated by the banal becoming transcendent. The moment of the sun setting is one such surreal experience that, while it takes place every day, is no less awe-inspiring because of its commonality. It’s an ephemeral moment as trite as it is beautiful and as common as it is extraordinary. The subject of several of Kerl’s paintings in this exhibition, including Lakeside from 2024, the sunset proliferates in sensitive renderings that suspend the moment in time over bodies of water. In Lakeside, the long tail of reflected light is hot and insistent, a small magnet at the center of the composition, while lush plant life reads like a screen placed in front of the viewer. It imbues the act of looking with a sense of being concealed and safe.
Compositionally, Night of the Hodag (2024) is complex and efficacious. The structure of the composition dictates our viewing: the long pine boughs lead the viewer up slowly to the top row of party lights which situates us among the grove and within a not-so-specific festive atmosphere. Kerl’s love of visual media like album covers, playing cards, and signage comes to play here through the inclusion of the mythical Hodag, a bull-horned, lizard-like creature with spines down its back. Hodag is celebrated in Rhinelander, Wisconsin where he has a Chupacabra-like reputation. This embedded imagery and text, painted black on black with bright orange and green only peeking through on the very edges, illustrates how Kerl’s source material is filtered through memory, experience, and imagination. Finding Hodag is an easter egg – a reward the viewer is given by the artist for the act of looking keenly at his work.
Kerl has referred to Magic Hour (Tulips) from 2025 as the Platonic ideal of the exhibition’s title: it is a buzzy, softly glowing purple, and it is beautiful, confident, and bright, like a pink tulip. The moon’s sliver of a crescent fits perfectly, with its inherent mystery and magnetism reaching from the heavens, taking the place of the sun in the other paintings of the show. The subject matter is simple and yet the strength of the sharp composition and carefully calibrated color allows a tuning out of the noise of life and focus on what’s in front of us. Kerl’s mastery of his craft enthralls the viewer, but his goal with Magic Hour is to remind us to embrace the uncomplicated magic of the world – to remind us it exists.”
Reception: March 22, 2025 | 3–5 pm
2242 Richmond Avenue
Houston, 77098 TX
(713) 520-9988
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