Earthscapes Contemporary Views of and from the Land

EARTHSCAPES
CONTEMPORARY VIEWS OF AND FROM THE LAND

Featuring Kristopher Benedict, Gregory Botts, Stephen Hayes, Forrest Moses, and Shane Tolbert

On view now through July 14, 2018

Opening Reception Tonight:
Friday, June 15, 2018 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM

David Richard Gallery, LLC
Santa Fe Venue – 1570 Pacheco Street, Suite E2, Santa Fe, NM 87505
P: 505-983-9555
www.davidrichardgallery.com

Kristopher Benedict recently moved to suburbia, where he is trying to reconcile his prior urban life with his current proximity to nearly pure landscape. He is stuck somewhere between the two worlds, on many levels, conceptually and vegetatively.

Gregory Botts has always been concerned with the earth and its rotation, how that effects and often, can jumble everything. Hence, his frequent conflation of landscape and abstraction, and how the two coexist. His approach is reductive, focusing on the essence of the landscape by exploring extremes in figure / ground relationships and composition. His paintings provide a new view of a familiar scene.

Stephen Hayes has recently migrated to more urban landscapes that he views via Google maps. The paintings in this exhibit are from his prior series that were frequently inspired by the daily commute to and from his academic teaching position and the roadside views he encountered everyday as well his wondering out in open spaces. In every instance, Hayes attempts to capture his experience and sense of awe of the land versus a literal representation of the landscape

Forrest Moses is the classicist among this group. While the scenes may be familiar, his non-traditional reductive approach and capturing just the essence of the landscape creates a new experience of the land. Moses ignores the ‘noise' and distractions, focusing only on the land and his keen sense of observation.

Shane Tolbert's new works are inspired by the Northern New Mexico mountains, weather, history and culture. In this new series, the focus is on lunar and solar views from the earth and how their daily cycles simultaneously build, shape and erode the landscape. The series feels a bit like an archeological dig of the earth to reveal the long-term impact of these daily and nightly cycles using the moon and the sun as a metaphor for the earth. These orbs are full of oppositions that create internal tensions to convey a sense of eruption and tectonic shifts amid passages of tranquility.