Joshua Liner Gallery
Seattle Art Fair 2017

Presenting a booth of painters ranging from 3D realism to abstraction, our booth will offer works from Tiffany Bozic, Pema Rinzin, Riusuke Fukahori, Johnny Abrahams, Geoff McFetridge, Michael Kagan, and Andrew Schoultz.
Taking their inspirations from figuration and representational art, painters Bozic, Rinzin, and Fukahori, present subject matter directly pulled from the natural world to create works that are both innovative and deeply personal. Self-trained artist Tiffany Bozic uses natural surrealist imagery to tell stories from her own personal life. Her skills as a realist painter expand her subject matter to create powerful dream sequences combining the power of plants and animal for her hidden narratives. Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori also pulls his inspiration directly from Nature, his work paying homage to the goldfish. Not only a powerful cultural symbol for Fukahori, it is a deeply personal one as he contributes much of his own success to the goldfish. For Seattle, we will present his masterpiece, Kingyo-Sukui. This 3D, sculptural painting is his largest work to date, presenting the history of his own practice, as well as that of the goldfish. Painted in almost perfect 3-dimensionality within layers of clear resin, it is only upon close inspection does it reveal that these fish are all, in fact, painted. Finally, in this group, we have Pema Rinzin. Born in Tibet and trained as a master Thangka painter, Rinzin’s works create powerful reflections of birds, and abstractions, all using traditional Tibetan materials. Ground natural pigments, gold, and Sumi inks create works that are contemporary arrangements of deep tradition.
Michael Kagan works in oil on linen, a medium traditionally preferred for its slow drying time to allow artists time to work with the paint, to create pristine representations. Here, Kagan turns this idea inside out, by using oil with his quick, short, and frenzied brushstrokes. Up close these marks appear abstract, and accidental. However, stepping away from the canvas reveals incredibly real and powerful portraits. Painting from iconic photographs, Kagan’s subjects honor man’s drive to push ourselves to the limits.
Painters, Johnny Abrahams, Sam Friedman, and Geoff McFetridge explore geometric form and clean lines to create depth and movement through the simplest means. These artists strive to reduce their images to the barest essentials, leaving us with explorations of two-dimensional forms for their compositions. For Abrahams, these essential lines create works that move and shift as we view them. His abstract works successfully reflect space, movement, and volume, despite their seeming simplicity. McFetridge too reduces his subjects to a minimal line and geometric form, however, McFetridge maintains figuration at the center. Minimal color differences between geometric forms, create subtle but powerfully balanced compositions of daily life.
Lastly, gallery artist Andrew Schoultz will contribute his vibrant and politically charged works for Seattle. Known for his dedication to public art with his large-scale murals, Schoultz maintains a long-standing find art tradition as well. Again, often working with the traditional canvas backdrop, Schoultz reworks the idea of the canvas, by combining inks, acrylic paints, and even collaged currency to express work that comments on our cultural symbols of power and history.