In The Wake Of Movement

Opening: Saturday, October 8, 2022, 4:00 – 6:00 PM

“In The Wake Of Movement” features artwork from contemporary artists whose inspiration comes from the kinetic frenzy of lived experience. Movement begets movement—and as the world spins, life teems, and new life unfurls. As artists live and move throughout this world amidst culture, society, and history, they capture stand-alone moments in time that eventually trip another artist to creatively act. The craft of a line or the curvature of a figure is what lies in the wake of the movements by artists creating across space and time. In the considered artworks of “In The Wake Of Movement,” these contemporaneous acts of motion and beauty reflect the flowing movements these artists were affected by, thus affecting those environments in a cycle of movement.

Dana Oldfather was born in 1978 in Berea, Ohio, and has been linked to Cleveland’s artistic resurgence beginning in 2010. She is an oil painter as well as a dinnerware designer and is completely self-taught. Oldfather paints with a focus on themes of femininity and motherhood. Citing Willem de Kooning and Yoshitomo Nara as influences, her paintings help her process her existential thoughts and grapple with feelings of dread and insecurity. Exercising an intuitive use of color and gesture, Oldfather cements her position as a contemporary abstractionist.

Juana Céspedes is inspired by the contagious joy of dance. “Dance inspires me. I love its contagious joy. I’m often carried away by the image of swing dancers on an endless journey, from partner to partner—a journey that started in Harlem and found its way across the world.” She imagines the convergence of souls in her hometown of Barcelona as city squares flood with dancers who are celebrating the return of warmer days. Watercolor allows the artist to depict human flow and unique folds in her handmade paper give her artworks dimension, alluding to the urban spaces which inspire Céspedes.

Bernard Simunovic is a Croatian artist and designer with an inspiring life story. In the early 1990s, Simunovic escaped the Balcan conflict as a refugee leaving his mother, his hometown, and his family. Simunovic’s work plays with color, form, and line to create abstract figures, frequently expressing a delicate sense of intimacy and introspection. A simple black line, the “thread of life,” runs through and along clever color-blocking resulting in graphic paintings, carefully thought out with shadow and light, infusing his artworks with a sculptural quality. Together these principal elements formulate Simunovic’s lyrical figures who appear in transient states of delight, love, and contemplation.

Ryan Schmidt was born in 1980 and his creative interest started at the early age of five in Origami and Constructs (predecessor to Legos). Moving into painting and photography during school set a definite artistic direction while also learning to work with wood, metal, and plastic in his father’s business of custom remodeling, landscaping, and handcrafted playgrounds. Schmidt furthered his studies in photography, painting, drawing, color in design, printmaking, and ceramics, and finally transitioned into sculpture. His mission is to share the gift of inspiration through reflection with the passion for stainless steel, and the desire to build dynamic sculptures that activate their surroundings and last generations.

With a career spanning 20 years and having created more than 250 large sculpture pieces, D’Arcy Bellamy is a seasoned metal sculptor. He focuses on making human-scale, abstract, minimalist, and often kinetic sculptures exclusively from steel pipe. Bellamy’s work is characterized by flowing lines, strong negative space, originality, movement, and shadows. With his unique process of subtractive fabrication, Bellamy has created a large body of original, engaging work that has a spontaneous and playful nature. Of his work, Bellamy states, “most metal sculptors work in an additive process or one that involves casting. In a process I call subtractive fabrication, I work more like a stone carver, removing material and adding mostly space and line. I enjoy releasing the energy that is stored in each length of pipe.”

Since the opening of Artplex Gallery in 2018, the gallery continues to be one of the world's leading art galleries specializing in high-quality, original contemporary art representing a broad spectrum of major international artists. Right at home in West Hollywood and within immediate proximity to its sister gallery Artspace Warehouse, Artplex Gallery is an expansive modern space that specializes in international urban, pop, graffiti, figurative, and abstract art catering to the visual impact.