Michael Callas: Through His Filter

JoAnne Artman Gallery
Dec 14, 2020 10:09PM

Intricately produced through a rigorous process of drafting, mapping, and hand-cutting templates before being transposed onto canvas with aerosol paints, Michael Callas creates a surface that is uniform and rich in color. “I always wanted to take these classic compositions and put it through my own personal filter” says Callas. “I feel like I’m living in a shadow of these artists, and I want to build upon the past so as to not forget it. We’ve progressed as a society, but I think it’s necessary for us to learn lessons of the past in order to move forward.”

Rooted in Pop art, street art, graphic design, and his life in Southern California, Michael Callas’ paintings are done with spray paint and precise stencil work. Intricately produced through a rigorous process of drafting, mapping, and hand-cutting templates before being transposed onto canvas with aerosol paints, Callas creates a surface that is uniform and rich in color. Applying his distinct approach of working in aerosols to some of the most iconic paintings from world history, Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Callas explores past famous character archetypes and narratives, bringing them into a modern context.

Michael Callas
American Modern, 2020
JoAnne Artman Gallery

“The current cultural climate has had an impact on me. As one who makes a living off of conscious and subconscious expression, often it can feel vulnerable to put yourself out there. I believe art should always speak truth to power,” explains Callas. “My paintings will exist not just for today, but also for many years to come. I do not want my work to be looked at as compromised through the lens of the future. When sufficient time passes the moment becomes more defined and understood. That way, the thread of time is never lost and the conversation is ever evolving.”

A perfect combination of Callas’ interest in iconic art and his background in architecture, each of the two pieces maintain their original compositions, yet are transformed through a new, contemporary lens. In his rendition of American Gothic, astutely titled American Modern, Callas kept the recognizable figures and their position in the foreground. However, rather than keeping the original barn behind the figures, Callas updates the painting by bringing the couple indoors a modern home with high vaulted ceilings, large windows, and a minimalist aesthetic. In addition to the updated environment, the color palette of American Modern is much darker in comparison to the original Grant Wood work set outdoors during daylight, establishing a different mood as well as setting.

Earning its rightful place in art history, as well as frequently parodied, Nighthawks is a 1942 oil on canvas painting by Edward Hopper that portrays people in a downtown diner late at night as viewed through the diner's large glass window. The light coming from the diner illuminates a darkened and deserted urban streetscape.

Michael Callas
Night Hawks, 2020
JoAnne Artman Gallery

Hopper eliminated any reference to an entrance, and the viewer, drawn to the light, is shut out from the scene by a seamless wedge of glass. The four anonymous night owls seem as separate and remote from the viewer as they are from one another. In Callas’ version, all figures are removed and the diner lights are turned off. Rather, across the street the windows are lit and reveal silhouettes of the figures. A continuation of Hopper’s original, Callas depicts the diner after it closes and everyone returns home; however, the viewer still acts as a voyeur looking in.

Carrying the inspiration, legacy, and iconography of his predecessors, Michael Callas’ filter brings the past into the present, showing the undeniable ties of art history and pop art’s appropriation.


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JoAnne Artman Gallery 326 + 346 N Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 | 511A West 22nd St. New York, NY 10011 Telephone: 949-510-5481 | E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.joanneartmangallery.com

JoAnne Artman Gallery