TURN Gallery presents SHIFTING TERRAIN, a two person exhibit featuring work by An Hoang and Andy Mister.


Flawed or idealized, deconstructed or reconstructed, both artists explore traces and memories of landscape yet reveal distinct alternative realities. While An Hoang’s abstract paintings suggest a felt experience, Andy Mister's photorealistic drawings take us into the realm of hyperreality.


An Hoang's paintings are derived from her observations of nature and the urban landscape. In SHIFTING TERRAIN, An Hoang's canvases are enveloped in oils of smoky lavenders, chilled grays and luminous pinks, capturing the poetic journey our senses take as we explore and consume nature's offerings. Her intuitive marks are brushed and smeared on, scraped and wiped off, and built up in layers until a lush surface reveals itself. With elegant ease, her quiet harmonies of nature’s twilight colors are offset by flares of bold or vibrant color which lure the viewer into her mysterious and fluid landscapes. In An Hoang’s work the spirit of the place within the painting feels familiar, evoking a tangible echo of memory, yet remains abstract and elusive.


Andy Mister’s work investigates the boundary between mechanical and manual reproduction. Andy Mister explores how meaning is created or lost through copying using either a photocopier or working by hand. His current focus is on landscapes which is a departure from the historical images of conflict and revolt found in earlier works (JFK assassination, Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement). In SHIFTING TERRAIN we see the underlying aesthetic of his earlier work, but with a fantastical joy that is immediately accessible to the viewer. The source images for this show are pre-1950 photography which add a more painterly look. Andy Mister chose to mount his drawings to panels instead of framing, making the experience even more direct. Traces of his own hand are visible throughout his drawings, as are traces of the materials he uses to create them – ink, acrylic, pastel, carbon pencil – but he hews closely to the original image to make the viewer pause and wonder… are they drawings… a painting… or a print? Andy Mister calls his works “compilations” – a compelling visual mix tape.


PRESS
Deep Color Podcast with An Hoang, November 30, 2016