Showing posts with label oddi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oddi. Show all posts

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Truth is Made: Artwork of Benedict Oddi


blog sponsor:

The Pittsburgh Galleries blog is a volunteer effort from Rick Byerly to promote Pittsburgh art events which feature artists from the area. The PghGalleries.com website effort is an up-to-date directory with Pittsburgh area art venues. Thanks go to Sirani Gallery of 5875 Forbes Ave in Squirrel Hill for being a sponsor and David L. Edwards Art and Anonymous for their donations to this effort. Donation and sponsor info can be found here. Rick Byerly, Uniquetake Photography
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The Truth is Made: Artwork of Benedict Oddi

Opening Reception on June 5th from 7 to 10pm. Free and open to the people. Part of "Unblurred" On Penn Avenue


4919 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh Pa 15224. Gallery Hours: Thursdays 6:30 to 9pm, Saturdays 1 to 4pm or by appointment. http://www.modernformations.com/


412-362-0274


The artist states: "The desire for freedom, escape, and exploration influence the narrative of my oil paintings. In my representations, I examine the possibilities of utopia and dystopia through the escapist tendency to create a parallel realism. The crafted pictorial environment is meant to emphasize a disconnection to a tactile reality, where by ideas and experiences are confused, allowing the viewer to assemble a personal narrative. By doing so, the work evokes a feeling of uneasiness through improbability; this imaginary voyage should feel familiar and sublime, filled with imminent danger."


"My theater-like arrangements of figures in landscape are placed in situations of anxiety and peril, intervened by trace elements of other-worldliness. During the course of these works I have examined human natures, social and institutional conventions. While my reflection was approached through escapism related to utopian and dystopian philosophy, I have tried not to align with one thought or the other, but choose to respond to both concerning the nature of free will."


"This where my journey begins and ends through a quest for some taste of free will. While I choose iconography and situations of peril with great significance to myself, these specific choices need not strictly inform the viewer in their interpretation of the work of art."


Exhibit runs through July 24th, 2009.





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Like what's posted on this blog and the website http://www.pghgalleries.com/ ? This is a volunteer effort so donations of any size are welcome which can be made via paypal here . Also at that link anyone interested in purchasing banner space, which includes placement on this blog and the PghGalleries.com website, can sign up there. Thanks! Rick Byerly
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Friday, May 22, 2009

The Truth is Made: Artwork of Benedict Oddi


blog sponsor:

The Pittsburgh Galleries blog is a volunteer effort from Rick Byerly to promote Pittsburgh art events which feature artists from the area. The PghGalleries.com website effort is an up-to-date directory with Pittsburgh area art venues. Thanks go to Sirani Gallery of 5875 Forbes Ave in Squirrel Hill for being a sponsor and David L. Edwards Art and Anonymous for their donations to this effort. Donation and sponsor info can be found here. Rick Byerly, Uniquetake Photography
...


The Truth is Made: Artwork of Benedict Oddi



June 5, 2009


The desire for freedom, escape, and exploration influence the narrative of my oil paintings. In my representations, I examine the possibilities of utopia and dystopia through the escapist tendency to create a parallel realism. The crafted pictorial environment is meant to emphasize a disconnection to a tactile reality, where by ideas and experiences are confused, allowing the viewer to assemble a personal narrative. By doing so, the work evokes a feeling of uneasiness through improbability; this imaginary voyage should feel familiar and sublime, filled with imminent danger.


My theater-like arrangements of figures in landscape are placed in situations of anxiety and peril, intervened by trace elements of otherworldliness. During the course of these works I have examined human natures, social and institutional conventions. While my reflection was approached through escapism related to utopian and dystopian philosophy, I have tried not to align with one thought or the other, but choose to respond to both concerning the nature of free will.


In analyzing my own efforts as a method to provide structure and autonomy to the inherent turmoil of vulnerable human life, the painting becomes a window, with the act of viewing involving a game. The attempt at detangling of the narrative has both the curiosity of discovery and the helplessness of a repeated history never begun. The painting then harkens the history of painting and to that of humankind, in all its injustices and failed endeavors. The act of painting from which I cannot separate myself, feels hopeless like that of Sisyphus, in my search for meaning through struggle. In Albert Camus’s influential essay The Myth of Sisyphus, the entry closes:
“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds ones burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” (Camus 123)


This where my journey begins and ends through a quest for some taste of free will. While I choose iconography and situations of peril with great significance to myself, these specific choices need not strictly inform the viewer in their interpretation of the work of art. In addition to Albert Camus, I am also influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Giambattista Vico. Other major influences include Jorge Louis Borges, Erich Fromm, Yi-Fu Tuan, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Giorgio de Chirico, and Milan Kundera.



Opening reception June 5th, 7 to 10pm. Exhibit runs to July 24th.

ModernFormations
4919 Penn Avenue.Pittsburgh PA 15224
412.362.0274



...

Like what's posted on this blog and the website http://www.pghgalleries.com/ ? This is a volunteer effort so donations of any size are welcome which can be made via paypal here . Also at that link anyone interested in purchasing banner space, which includes placement on this blog and the PghGalleries.com website, can sign up there. Thanks! Rick Byerly
...


check out

www.PghGalleries.com



blog sponsored by:



administered by:




pittsburgh galleries is a project from
pittsburgh photographer
rick byerly, www.uniquetake.com

1 2 3 4 5 6





Friday, January 2, 2009

Artist Benedict Oddi at Luke and Eloy Gallery


from blog creator rick byerly:


blog sponsor:

The Pittsburgh Galleries blog is a volunteer effort from Rick Byerly to promote Pittsburgh art events which feature artists from the area. The PghGalleries.com website effort is an up-to-date directory with Pittsburgh area art venues. Thanks go to Sirani Gallery of 5875 Forbes Ave in Squirrel Hill for being a sponsor and David L. Edwards Art and Anonymous for their donations to this effort. Donation and sponsor info can be found here. Rick Byerly, Uniquetake Photography
...


ARTIST BENEDICT ODDI PRESENTS “THEATER OF THE MIND”
at LUKE & ELOY GALLERY



Pittsburgh, PA – Artist Benedict Oddi invites us into his “Theater of the Mind” with a show of neo-surrealist oil paintings, wood assemblage, and graphite drawings at Luke& Eloy Gallery, 5169 Butler Street in Lawrenceville. “Theater of the Mind’ is a multi-faceted vision of the artist’s parallel psychological universe – its landscapes, dreamscapes, traps and escapes. The exhibit runs from January 17 to February 21, 2009. Opening Reception is Saturday, January 17, 2009 from 11am to 3pm. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11am to 2pm, Saturdays 11am to 5pm. For more information visit http://www.lukeandeloy.ning.com/ or call 412-784-1919.
Using oil paint on panel, wood assemblage, and graphite on paper, Oddi’s “Theater of the Mind” intertwines images, shapes and moods from one medium to the other. He pursues themes of confinement, hope, anxiety and symbolism, all felt from the stretched perspective of another human dimension. The royal jewel-tones in Oddi’s paintings balance with the raw wood of assemblage, and cool grays of graphite on paper. Some of Oddi’s work emerges from his own imagination, while literary works inspire some of his other expressions. “My work evokes a feeling of uneasiness through improbability. Your imaginary voyage should feel familiar and sublime, filled with imminent danger,” says Oddi.
Oddi holds a BFA in Painting from Edinboro University (PA) and will complete his MFA at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the Spring of 2009. Virtual galleries of Oddi’s art can be viewed at his website http://www.benoddi.com/. “Theater of the Mind” is his first one-man show.Luke & Eloy Gallery features regular exhibits of fine art and craft, including painting, sculpture, and other media. Specializing in fine art jewelry, Luke & Eloy presents work by noted designers of art jewelry, including Gallery Director Brigitte Martin who is a goldsmith and fine art jeweler.





...

Like what's posted on this blog and the website http://www.pghgalleries.com/ ? This is a volunteer effort so donations of any size are welcome which can be made via paypal here . Also at that link anyone interested in purchasing banner space, which includes placement on this blog and the PghGalleries.com website, can sign up there. Thanks! Rick Byerly
...


check out

www.PghGalleries.com


blog sponsored by:



administered by:




pittsburgh galleries is a project from
pittsburgh photographer
rick byerly, www.uniquetake.com

1 2 3 4 5 6