Opening Final Friday, April 25th is "Collision," an exhibition of new work by Herb Reith. After a reception that evening the show will run through May 24th with regular gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday from 11-3.
Herb and I first met when he was doing work for his MFA at the University of Cincinnati back in 2002. With our studios across the hall from each other it was easy to share dialogue about artwork, weird collection obsessions, kitsch, music, and what contemporary pop junk can lend to a commentary on the way we live today. The work he did and still does outside of installation work consists primarily of cloth/painting collages that hang like works on canvas.
The themes within his work are drawn from landscape and comic-like imagery. The landscapes take shape through camouflage backgrounds, or repetitive forms both isolated and strewn across a piece of cloth. The discussion takes place through painted and collaged forms that occupy these patterned landscapes, working toward what Reith calls "a more abstract investigation of human's impact on the environment." The title "Collision" reminds us of what can be so unnatural about our lives here on this planet colliding with the natural world. There is a playful irony to many of the pieces, and they don't stick out as socially ambiguous. They are textural, rhythmic, and alive.
Please join us Final Friday for a visit with the artist and his work. He's coming all the way up from Mississippi for the opening, and hopefully this good weather will be with us!
See you all soon!
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