On View from March 28 through May 3, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.
Gallery 151 is proud to present a wide variety of works by New York-based artist Oscar Dotter. Twenty paintings from two collections and two life-size polar bear sculptures will crowd the gallery to build a dialogue between two poles of the artist’s experience of Nordic life. Gallery 151 and Huh What Art Studio will offer a portion of the proceeds from Nordic Pop to the World Wildlife Fund, including sales from merchandise designed by the artist and a raffle with all earnings dedicated to saving the Polar Bear.
Inspired by annual trips to Scandinavia, on one end of Nordic Pop is “The Dots” collection that evokes the vitality of Denmark and Finland through a layered, mixed-media play; at the other end are the paintings from the“Abstract Polar” series, part of a continued meditation on climate change, the power of nature, and the human hand in all of this. Dotter’s practice thrives on chance encounters, the pursuit of visual ideals, and mixed media materiality. His use of “hard materials” (in the artist’s words) like plaster, resin, and wax make some paintings resemble found materials and street art, creating fusions between natural spheres of color (the Aurora Borealis, for example) and urban zones of counter-culture. Even paintings from the series “Abstract Polar” confuse the natural and the human, repeatedly portraying the same open-mawed polar bear in different revivals: a fading emblem, a bloodied monster, a Pop-art icon, and every permutation in between. Each piece seems to have been reimagined and repainted a dozen times, its past selves emerging and peaking out of view. The emotionally charged installation becomes an ambivalent visual playground somewhere between celebration of the bright colors of the human world and more somber views toward loss and deterioration in the natural world, marrying man and nature with surprising, playful results.
Oscar has lived in New York City since 1998, drawing inspiration from retro and vintage themes, contrasted with bright backdrops of bold coloring, often with a touch of vulgarity. A self-taught painter and photographer, Oscar typically works on canvas with heavy acrylic and oil paints, incorporating other elements such as charcoal, silicon, leather, coffee, tea, plastics and textiles. Having painted his entire life, Oscar has also produced art and visual installations for various corporations and individuals throughout the world. Oscar works out of his Huh What Art Studio located in Chelsea, New York City. Various pieces of his collections can be found at www.oscardotter.com & www.nordicpop.com
Curated by the Huh What Art Studio & The City Firm Inc.
