Brian Calvin

Press Release

It is with pleasure that Corbett vs. Dempsey announces Pressing On, an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Brian Calvin. This is CvsD’s third show with Calvin and the gallery’s first full-scale exhibition of new work.

Brian Calvin emerged over the last 15 years as an innovator in the reinvigorated field of figurative painting in the U.S. Calvin’s studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago proved formative – indeed, he was a star student of Ray Yoshida and Barbara Rossi – although a return to California is also reflected in his vibrant paintings, which pop and glow with radiant light that might reasonably be called “West Coast.” Each intimately cropped work is imbued with emotional complexity and psychological character, in part through the act of cropping – often the figure (or figures) occupies a tunnel-like space, suggesting an intense interior space of devious monologue or whispered conversation. Recent developments in Calvin’s works include a focus on multiple figures – interlocking women’s faces, chiaroscuro yin and yang, sometimes smoking or pressing finger to lips. The paintings are often executed on board, which allows Calvin to explore different modalities of touch and mark, often more expressive than the flat, refined, harder-edged work of a few years ago. And Calvin has also returned to drawing, an important part of the first phase of his mature work; at CvsD he will show a group of new drawings, many of them vigorously worked, sometimes directly related to paintings, but featuring yet another characteristic feel, with scumbled lines drawn over paint. Pressing On includes large-scale paintings and a salon style wall of works on paper.

Opens Friday, April 27, 2018, 6-8 PM

Image information: Brian Calvin, Double Duo, 2018, acrylic and pastel on panel, 40 x 60 inches