John Stark, Blueberry Hill (detail), 2023, oil on wood, 8.07 x 9.04 inches.March / April 2023
opening on the Ides of March.
CONNERSMITH is pleased to present “Feed Your Demons,” an exhibition of new paintings by John Stark.
In each of Stark’s pictures a quiet respite is to be found. Flawlessly rendered in oils on wood, their poetics of color, form and texture immediately invoke Baroque still life masterpieces. Closer observation discloses them as radically contemporary meditations on reality.
Drawing from Buddhist philosophy, anthropology, and comparative archeology, the artist conceptualizes the agency of natural forces within a subversive model of cultural history. Stark reimagines his genre as a social medium, deploying still life as a secure nexus between artist and viewer. He explains, “Painting is a social space, a two-way mirror, where beholder and maker become one. I hope these works will open a hospitable place, a small window where truth and friendship coalesce, where our demons can feed and rest.”
Full exhibition and curatorial essay, Jamie L Smith Ph.D, HERE
