BOROUGH and LANE
New works on paper by Evan Hecox
04.11.11 - 27.11.11
Evan Hecox is an artist whose work
captures the essence of urban environments through a unique process that
involves first-hand observations of his surroundings and then
progresses into drawings and paintings that are striking in their
graphic simplicity. His work recognizes and evokes the constantly
evolving nature of cities and of the lives that exist within them. By
visually embracing all aspects of these environments he uses the decay
and detritus of modern cities as key visual elements in his work,
challenging traditional preconceptions of beauty. Like mental snapshots
distorted by the haze of memory they both record a place and time as it
actually was while simultaneously re-ordering reality by removing
certain elements and emphasizing others. In this way his work has the
effect of placing the viewer in a certain time and place while also
layering it with his own experience. His cross-disciplinary interest in
photography, fine art and design infuses his work with an unusual but
dynamic mix, ranging from near photo realism to simplified abstraction.
He has exhibited his work widely in the United States as well as
exhibitions in Paris, Sydney and Tokyo and others.
In his newest body of work Evan Hecox has concentrated, for the first
time, on the city of London. The city makes for deep and appropriate
subject matter for the artist, with it's intricate network of
neighborhoods, streets, canals and old buildings that form the backdrop
for it's bustling population. He has sought out areas that are less
traveled by tourists and has focused instead on parts of former
industrial and working-class London, going east to Shoreditch and
Hoxton, to the side-streets of Camden Town, along Regent's Canal and
south to Brixton and Battersea, as well as traversing the streets and
underground of the city center. His multimedia works on paper offer an
outsider's view of the seemingly mundane moments and places in life,
yet it is often in these details that a city's true character is
revealed. Rather than impossibly trying to document all things about
such a vast urban landscape, his work seeks to observe the overall mood
and atmosphere of London, capturing gray, overcast days with his silver
and black monochromatic pieces and making use of more colorful and
abstracted visions that express the life and vitality of the city.
