peaks + beasts at Romer Young Gallery, October 26 - December 16, 2017
Romer Young Gallery is pleased to present peaks + beasts, an exhibition of new paintings by New York artist EJ Hauser. This is the gallery's first solo exhibition with the artist; there will be an opening reception on Thursday, October 26th, 5-8pm.
peaks + beasts is connected to Hauser's exhibition seekers / beasts at AWHRHWAR in Los Angeles. The shows are connected through the beasts. The exhibition weaves together Hauser's kingdom of beasts - her amphibians, smilers, mountains with eyes, tigers, bees, monkeys and lions, birds, cats, heads - with the mythological landscapes and colorscapes that her beasts might like to dwell in.
Inspired by the 19th century Peaceable Kingdom series of paintings by the Quaker painter Edward Hicks, the cast of characters in her work symbolize ideas of transformation, metamorphosis, mythology, and visual polyphony. The works on view at AWHRHWA and Romer Young Gallery are "an exercise in visual openness - symbolic and humorous, they present an exuberant alternative to the stark chaos of now."
Hauser's paintings live in the borderland between painting and drawing, analog and digital, abstraction and representation, real and mythical. The artist has an unmistakable brushstroke and and intuitive practice that employs repetition, layering to conjure a simultaneity of points of view, perspectives, and visions.