August 29, 2007
Lasers in the Jungle
Eric Gibbons and Nathan Green
September 1- October 6, 2007
Reception, September 1st, 2007
at Art Palace in Austin, TX
War, the diamond trade, killer bees, traffic jams, global warming, killer
asteroids, pandemics, cancer, violent crime, religious fanaticism,
poverty, tsunamis, governmental corruption, genital herpes, bird flu,
identity theft, torture. Nathan Green’s work strives for an absurdity
equal to that which is reflected in the above list, but in the opposite
direction. His is a search for the ecstatic where vivid visions of
unrealistic and impossible situations present a world overflowing with
delight and glee, almost to a burden. Where Green’s paintings use a
lexicon that includes children’s drawings, nature, drug culture and
utopian architecture, Eric Gibbon’s has chosen to focus on one figure
whose oeuvre is defined by earnestness and seeming effortless ponderings
on love, betrayal, desire, aging and God: Paul Simon. Gibbon’s portraits
of Simon function as a means to process the poetry and beauty of the
songwriter’s music. Green’s and Gibbon’s worlds sometimes converge
thematically, and at other times stylistically, but both worlds always
profess a steady devotion to the idea of miracle and wonder. The title of
this two-person exhibition, ” Lasers in the Jungle”, at Art Palace is
taken from Simon’s lyrics to the song Boy in a Bubble.
