⇧ 4 Interpretation
October 4th - December 8th, 2019
⇧ 4 Interpretation
From Lascaux, to the Renaissance era, to the work of Van Gogh and thousands of others, one thing has remained constant; to not only have the desire to paint, but to paint ourselves and others. On October 4th, 2019, PRIME Gallery is proud to present, ⇧ 4 Interpretation, a group exhibition of varying narratives with a focus on human expression featuring the works of seven artists, all of whom were raised or have settled into the Jersey City area.
⇧ 4 Interpretation is Co-Curated by Gallery Director, Maria Kosdan and Gallerist, Zachariah Buteux, the exhibition will feature Ray Arcadio, Taylor Cacici, Thomas John Carlson, Nathalie De Zan, James Gortner, Kathryn Mecca and Joe Velez. The show will be on display October 4th to December 8th.
MEET THE ARTISTS
RAY ARCADIO
A visual artist from New Jersey. He obtained a B.F.A from New Jersey City University. Arcadio’s background is in street art and graphic design. He was a founding member of the culture jamming collaborative group Artfux,
who were pioneers in street art.
TAYLOR CACICI
Taylor Cacici is a New Jersey born and bred multimedia artist that currently resides in Bayonne New Jersey. Studying at William Patterson University, as a color blind artists, he mainly creates portraits using various mediums such as oil paint, charcoal, watercolor, pen and ink, and mixed media. These portraits often convey an overwhelming sense of angst, existentialism, and misanthropy. Taylor likes to tackle and portray mental health issues in his artwork. An issue that was once stigmatized and taboo to speak upon. Upon first glance at his art, one might not see his underlying message. His portraits are meant to be looked at and analyzed deeply in order to see the subtle ways in which he expresses the message he is trying to convey.
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THOMAS JOHN CARLSON
Thomas lives and works in Jersey City, NJ. He founded the Jersey City Art School in 2009, which has grown to 5 locations, which includes over 40 studios, a gallery and several classrooms.Carlson also helped create jcartist.org, an artist directory and resource for curators in Jersey City, NJ. JCAS also founded and manages The 313 Gallery opened in 2013 and focuses of 6 weeklong group shows. Carlson has curated several shows over the years in Jersey City and the Eden Rock Gallery in St. Barthelemy, FWI where he has spent 7 months of artist residencies.
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NATHALIE DEZAN
Born in Toulouse, Nathalie De Zan has been a multimedia artist for ten years. Although her preferred medium is photography, for achieving her aesthetic ends she uses all manner of media in her creative process: clay modeling, graphic design, origami, clothing, … She works on the bodily links to space and to intimacy in provocative and dreamlike settings. For her the body is a way of elaborating analogies between artistic and physical processes. The aim is to question the status of the body in the face of diverse pressures of our modern world. She creates syncretic chimera aided by metaphor, and by symbols that she is constantly questioning.
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JAMES GORTNER
Born in Orange County, CA, Painter James Gortner attended Hawaii Pacific University and received his MFA from Columbia University. His work engages the audience in dialogue about their perception of art and uses conceptual painting and installations to explore the process of creation. Blending reclaimed materials such as paint, artists’ paintings, imagery, wood, and textiles, Gortner creates art based upon an underlying conceptual framework and challenges contemporary notions about painting. The surfaces of his two-dimensional works are characteristically constructed and painted with range from hyper-realistic to abstract, visibly evidencing the artist's formal skill set. He lives in New York.
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KATHRYN MECCA
My oil paintings and digital illustrations depict the figure in social contexts, and concern what its presentation reveals about the subject and its audience. How much information about a person’s essence is gleaned from a fleeting public or private pose?... I explore this theme through studies of fragmented body parts. The portraits deliberately simplify the subject, omitting the wealth of information supplied by the face, while flattening and stylizing what is presented. The result is an abstraction that seeks to convey the essence of a subject.
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JOE VELEZ
Joe Velez is a Jersey City, N.J., native who, despite being born with an interest in the arts, didn't begin painting until the age of twenty-one. The self-taught artist's first works were expressionistic in nature yet still largely figurative. After developing a strong affinity for the old master, however, his style began to evolve. Through careful study of their techniques, Velez learned how to create more classically inspired work with dramatic tension and an implied narrative. His scenes contain imagery that are not impossible but are perhaps improbable.”
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