BRUNO DAVID GALLERY
7513 Forsyth Boulevard
Saint Louis, MO 63105

Tuesday -Saturday 11am – 5 pm
[email protected]
http://brunodavidgallery.com/
https://www.artsy.net/bruno-david-gallery
1-314-696-2377

EXHIBITIONS FOR MARCH | APRIL 2023

Exhibition Dates: March 10 – April 22, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, March 10, from 6 to 8 pm

MARIO TREJO
Idiosyncratic Tantrums

RYAN ECKERT
Two Worldviews

JIM BRAINARD
Bits & Pieces

SARA GHAZI ASADOLLAHI
Chaos
New Media Room

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Mario Trejo’s exhibition “Idiosyncratic Tantrums” features extensive accumulations that visually explore eternity and struggle through manic mark making. Considering the concepts of time, space, and number. He creates hundreds of thousands of marks, exhibiting conscious and sensitive attention to both detail and the whole. He begins to form small universes, each a relic of the arduous performance of repeated gestures. reconciling personal experience with the ideas of measurement and disorder in conceptual layers; the compulsive mark reflects the eternal battle between himself and his surroundings, but the product becomes a facsimile of the sublime remoteness of the universe in miniature, revealing at once loneliness, futility, chaos, and uncertainty. His current work is a metaphor for the fragile imperium under which we all reside.

Mario Trejo said, “I am fascinated with space, time, and numbers. I draw black accumulations of quickly executed idiosyncratic circles forming abstract compositions. These peculiar marks are a never-ending struggle with myself and my surroundings at a distance. These repetitive, meticulous, and time-based works are all attempts to visualize epic numbers of macrocosmic and microcosmic entities. The amalgamations of hundreds of thousands of circles in varying densities begin to resemble pocket universe, each a relic of an arduous performance of repeated gestures.

Mario Trejo was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri. He lives and works in Seattle, Washington. In 2005, he attended The Chicago Art Institute of Chicago, for his BFA. Mario received his Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. In concurrence with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery Publications will publish an exhibition catalog of the artist’s work with an exhibition history and bibliography.

Image: Mario Trejo. Untitled Muse, 2022. Acrylic and spray paint on paper, 24 x 18 in.

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Ryan Eckert’s structural abstractions explore ideas about the state of splitting worldviews, depicted through the lens of biblical Christianity. Eckert’s works in his exhibition:“Two Worldviews” presents the clashing of ideals to the point of hostility through the means of deconstructing nonrepresentational forms, lines, and structures. The internal process of coping with the outrage within modern culture is displayed within each canvas. Each layer of his canvas reacts to the next, a process which leaves the works both chaotic and restful in moments, becoming a parallel to navigating the living world. His surfaces range in complexity, allowing mark making to be heavily thinned and layered, or bold and instantaneous. Paint, markers, and paper are used purposefully throughout the paintings. Each medium is necessary to and inseparable from its surface, which creates the dynamic, yet playful tension that is explored through the vast ethereal voids of his canvases.

Ryan Eckert received his BFA and MA at Eastern Illinois University in 2015 and 2017 respectively. He then went on for an MFA at Arizona State University in 2020. He is currently a Professor at Dordt University, Sioux Center, IA.

Image: Ryan Eckert, Diving for a Light, 2022. Acrylic, marker and paper on canvas, 36 x 24 in.

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Jim Brainard’s exhibition “Bits & Pieces” creates assemblages made from found, often-neglected, objects such as tree bark, used matches, and corrugated cardboard. He also scavenges small mysterious pieces of trash to be used in future projects. His view of the environment and looking at common objects in a different way makes his small, detailed assemblages thought provoking. By careful execution Jim arranges the found items into collages that are visually appealing. By creating these assemblages from found items Jim’s abstract compositions inspire contemplation.

Assemblage “à la Joseph Cornell” became an important mode of creation for Jim Brainard. Jim begins by assembling disparate elements of pre-existing, non-art everyday objects that create a pleasing composition. As the piece progresses the “Bits and Pieces” meld together to create a finished work. It is one thing to collect the disparate items, but it is quite another to arrange the items in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

Jim Brainard was born in 1940 in Arkansas. He moved to St. Louis in 1964. After graduating from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Art, his professional career was spent as an illustrator before retiring. In concurrence with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery Publications will publish an exhibition catalog of the artist’s work with an exhibition history and bibliography.

Image: Jim Brainard, Bits & Pieces 13, 2022. Assemblage of found objects, 6 x 5 in.

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The video work “Chaos” by Iranian-born, Atlanta-based multi-disciplinary artist Sara Ghazi Asadollahi is a visual interpretation of the timeless and deeply emotional poem by the Iranian poet, Furūgh Farrukhzād: “To my abode, if thou should come, bring a light, O gentle one, and a casement, from which I might view the bustle of the street below.” It is a tribute to Farrukhzād’s artistry and a meditation on the universal human experiences of love, loss, and the passage of time.

Sara Ghazi Asadollahi studio practice delves into the intricate relationship between the past and future as they intersect in ruins. With a rich background in both Visual Art and Film Studies, Sara masterfully blends a range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, and video, to challenge conventional forms and push the boundaries of creative expression.

Sara Ghazi Asadollahi holds a B.A. and M.A. in Iran and an M.F.A. degree from the Sam Fox School of Visual Arts & Design, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate (Film and Media Studies) at the Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Sara’s artworks have been included in exhibitions across Europe, Iran, and the United States. This is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

Image: Sara Ghazi Asadollahi. Chaos (still), 2022. Color, sound, one-channel; 2:05 minutes. (Music by Bahar Royaee, vocals by Deniz Khateri)