Voluptuous Charm of the Monumental Impulse
Wonzimer Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition by Gary Brewer titled “Voluptuous Charm of the Monumental Impulse”. This will be Brewer’s first solo exhibition with the gallery since they began representing his work earlier this year. Previously Brewer has curated two exhibitions for the gallery: “The Shape of Life,” and “Entwined Roots: Symbiotic Relationships”, both in 2021.
“Voluptuous Charm of the Monumental Impulse” will include nine new paintings and five ceramic sculptures specifically created with this exhibition in mind. Wonzimer is thrilled to be working with Gary Brewer and exhibiting these compelling and beautiful works.
“Voluptuous charm” refers to beauty as an alluring force that shapes our subjective sense of what is worthy of our attention. From the exquisite patterns and colors of flowers that help to attract insects and birds to our own responses to the enticing curvature of desire.
“The monumental impulse” is the life instinct and the scale of our imagination to create worlds that hold our personal truth.
Artist Statement:
Beauty is a deep reservoir of mystery- within it the poetry of our subjective inner world is conveyed. It is a mirror of hope, possibility, and optimism that the energy of life expresses in every living cell.
My orchid paintings and biomorphic ceramic sculptures are deep meditations on my experience of life. Each morning I awake and embrace the day with enthusiasm and joy. I paint, sculpt and write from a well of creativity that is a celebration of the miracle of this body and of our consciousness. Our ability to feel, sense, and experience this brilliant living universe is a profound gift that I acknowledge and celebrate in my work.
Flowers are a profound subject to paint. Flowering plants changed the face of the earth. In each flower, the beauty we behold is in part fueled by a hidden story. When the age of flowers began 100 million years ago, so began the world that created humans. The flowering of the earth was an explosion of life: insects, birds, mammals, and our species are all made possible by this profound adaptation.
When I paint an orchid, I see in its complex forms an echo of the Big Bang, and the potential of life radiating outward through time to this very moment. In the bilateral symmetry, there is a reflection of a face; in its sensual folds and labial curves, one can see female genitalia. The powerful architecture of its structure is like a marvelous abstract sculpture- each of these aspects bring a compelling life to my paintings of these miracles of the natural world.
Sculpture is new to me. In the medium of clay, the very material is primordial; it is mythic and has a metaphysical quality in its endless malleability. I began these works in the spring of this year. They came into being with an epiphanic suddenness that can only be called a gift. They are built without forethought; it is gravity, intuition, touch and the perfect curvature of one’s thumb bending matter and space to arrive at these sculptures that suggest coral, sea-life, flowers, seeds and myriad zoomorphic forms.
To create these works is a joy. It is my life to make these images and forms as an expression of thanks to the mysterious forces that have manifested this miraculous existence.
