May 2, 2007, New York, NY - Forum Gallery presents The Storm, featuring dramatic new work by five figurative artists. The exhibition takes its title from The Storm, a monumental new painting by Icelandic artist Odd Nerdrum. This painting depicts nine figures in heated debate at a massive round table. The controversy of the discussion threatens to lift the table from its foundations, as the currents of the conversation impend to blow its participants away.
An allegorical depiction of the ongoing debate among contemporary art and artists about the true nature of art, Nerdrum’s The Storm offers an ideal anchor for this exhibition of representational painters, each of whom brings a unique perspective to the controversy in the form of his own painting.
Odd Nerdrum’s figures are loosely rendered, as their garments blow in the wind. Adverse to the conceptual and abstract basis for much of contemporary art, Nerdrum offers an alternative mode, rooted both in classical painting techniques and modern philosophy.
Steven Assael's vivid scene painting of an adult costume party gives rise to poignant thoughts about gender issues and the places heroes occupy in contemporary life. The subjects are Superman, role-play and sexual provocation, and Assael's extraordinary use of light illuminates them in deep and disquieting ways. Every viewer will create his own narrative, and all will be valid.
Canadian artist Paul Fenniak offers Pins and Needles, an intense portrait of a young woman reclining in her bed. She appears to be tortured by her thoughts. Fenniak’s painting, like Steven Assael’s, presents the viewer with unanswered questions from which to create a narrative and speculate about the utter despair of his figure.
Robert Bauer will show his newest portrait of the brooding Adam. The intimate scale of this carefully constructed painting enables communication with the subject on a very personal level. The work does not confront, but invites close contact with the introspective, psychologically-charged sitter.
William Beckman, working from distant memory and faded photographs, has created contemporary portraits of his first wife, Carol, whom he had not seen in four decades; and of their son Paul, who was adopted by another family at birth in 1964 and with whom the artist was united for the first time in 2005. The results are penetrating explorations of some of the deepest inner conflicts inherent in mankind. Beckman’s portraits of Paul and Carol provide a point of stark contrast to the sensitive portrayals of Bauer’s sitters. They look directly at the viewer, their features idealized, their skin as smooth and flawless as Beckman’s painted surface.
The exhibition opens Thursday May 10, 2007 at Forum Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, and continues through Friday June 22, 2007. The gallery is open from 10am to 5:30pm Tuesday through Saturday. After Memorial Day gallery hours are 10am to 5:30pm Monday through Friday. For more information please contact the Gallery.
CONTACT: Rachel Fienberg
