Kostuik Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition of mixed media paintings by California-based artist Mike O’Guinn. We are featuring a selection of paintings in square, vertical, or horizontal formats from various series by the artist ranging from spray painted graphic style to drip technique in complex style compositions that convey both an outward energy and inner sanctum.
The Pacific North West region of the USA has always been a major source of inspiration for O’Guinn, from its musical influences of grunge rock to the natural moody greens and misty whites of the rain forests. Coupled with his desire to express subjective emotions, inner experiences and spiritual themes, O’Guinn focuses primarily on gestural style in his painting, experimenting with techniques of wide brush strokes to thinly dripped lines often mixing paint mediums. Definitely painting in the moment, O’Guinn can sometimes conceive of a work in one evening.
In Glimpes and Fragments, metal meets linen, precision breaks into stain, clean zones give way to drips that seem to fall too far. There’s almost sound to this painter’s work, even in silence. One may feel it in the rhythm of the strokes, the smudged geometry and the shifting surface.
“I try to put myself into an open state when I make things in hope that I render a glimpse of something honest that is visually interesting. Art itself (particularly abstract art) does not cure the world’s problems, but my belief is that those glimpses of vulnerability or visceral commentary placed onto a canvas is symbolic of being able to really see each other, and feel something. That’s where the meaning comes in for me.”
BIOGRAPHY Born in Oakland, California, Michael O’Guinn grew up in the East Bay Area. In 2004, he attended USCB in Santa Barbara, CA, where he graduated with a Bachelor's in Law and Society and a minor in Philosophy. Following his undergrad, he received a Master's degree and has worked as a Legal Analyst in Santa Barbara for about 10 years before drifting back to a passion in the arts.
"I consider myself to be a new type of neo-expressionist. The Expressionist painters of the 50’s and 60’s in Europe and the USA influence me, but my work has a contemporary urban aesthetic. My paintings are comprised of quick choices made in the moment as I create, often influenced by music I listen to, or memories I tap into.”
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