"Veil" -- Oil on Birch Panel, by Bernie Park. (Photo courtesy Keweenaw Krayons)CALUMET -- An artist's reception for "Hit the Ground… Running?" -- an exhibit of work by Marquette painter and printmaker Bernie Park -- will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Vertin Gallery in Calumet.
The show, which runs through June 18, consists of oil and encaustic (wax and pigment emulsion) on solid surfaces.
"I am inspired by the natural beauty of the landscape as well as the sociological and psychological constructs that cause people to act rationally in an otherwise irrational world," Park says.
Park, who serves as curator and treasurer of Oasis Gallery in Marquette, paints on such surfaces as plywood or fiberboard. Painting both on an easel or wall, and flat on a table or floor, Park approaches the panel from all sides, controlling viscous paint that runs and sags. He uses brushes, rollers, graphite, charcoal and a host of other tools and techniques to manipulate paint and further articulate the surface, sometimes adding shaped supports that extend space beyond the two-dimensional, rectangular pictorial plane.
"I often employ marks reminiscent of ancient pictographs or graffiti -- marks that witness or declare, 'I exist,'" states Park. "My use of these marks may be literal or absurd, cryptic or humorous."
Park describes his process as intuitive but controlled and purposeful.
"I try not to violate the formal figure/ground relationship," he explains. "I hope that the very human scale, varied shapes and vibrant color are accompanied by a little buzz of the cerebral."
Park’s work is influenced by 1970s East Coast color field painting and minimalist sensibilities.
Artist Joyce Koskenmaki says Park is a Marquette artist whose work she has greatly admired for years.
"I highly recommend this show!" Koskenmaki adds.
For more information about the exhibit, reception or the Vertin Gallery, call Gallery Associate Kerri Corser at 906-337-2200.
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