John Lienhard "Engines of our Ingenuity"

Subject " Blind Philosophy "

The works being created as a part of the series Sojourn in the Shadowlands are evolving from the recent creative territory in painting and a growing interest in a specific sort of land.   I am increasingly interested in sacred landscapes which bring to mind both suffering, which humans are capable of bestowing on one another and that transform through the painting process into landscape which are also capable of suggesting aspects of the meditative and illuminating the possibility of hope. Current global realities and episodes of cultural genocide such as in Darfor and in the middle east are sensitizing and are encouraging me, as an artist, to explore imagery which may evoke a remembrance of this brutality and the possibility for enlightenment and hope through creative activity. These landscapes are absent of the figure by plan and the manner of pigmentation represent a more spiritual evocation of a human presence.

After several recent explorations of Europe and specifically Germany an intense interest has grown, within my creative activity to remember aspects of the concentration camps in Germany and Poland.  The example images included in this application for exhibition are from the areas of Nuengahanen and Bugenwald camps.  My interest in these subjects has become more focused in recent years as we witness continuing cultural genocide through the world such as in Darfor and in the Middle East. These attempts at genocide are a continue concern and reflect the darkest aspects which the humanity can inflict upon itself. If art can heal and I believe that it can, these images that I humbly summit for your consideration are the beginning of my sojourn to remember illuminate and mediate.

These recent oil on linen and mixed media paintings on B&W photographs reflect memories, which the land in and surrounding these two concentration camps evoke. In the essence of the photograph there is the brutality of fact that is suggested as a reflection of memory, though my creative intention goes much further. Though the feeding of mixed media pigment these photographs transform to other worlds capable of illumination and the evocation of the spiritual and at times the sacred. The process of evaporation in utilize in my painting process reflects aspects of time as it changes the landscape. I feel in these works a certain aspect of hope and through the luminosity of pigment. The value of colorfully grey pigment transforms each image through destruction to transformation and illumination.  The act of application is not intended to cover the suffering or memories of what occurred upon this land only highlight all aspects of the consciousness and content these places engendered in my thoughts and emotions after engaging them this past year. In these very ruins I found in and surrounding each camp a physical erasure by time. In my work he rubble emerging through veils of pigment is intentional and should act as a reminder of what occurred in these places.  Both the beauty of life and the horror of inhumanity are balanced in my contemporary mediations on the past. Through the focus of mediation it is my intention to suggest the possibility for a peaceful future.

“There are 3 key rules for painting a picture, just like for living life. Unfortunately, no one is really sure what they are.”

-- Bill Hailey

G Gallery Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Love, Death and Exponential Nirvana, Bill Hailey’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

The exhibition will feature a new series of paintings as well as a major new cycle of mixed media prints.

In his new paintings Hailey continues to investigate themes of spiritual power and sexual symbolism, evincing his enduring fascination with the existential challenges and ineffable mysteries of the human figure and psyche. ­­

He creates a darkly comic psychological universe with references to physical and social conundrums, as well as the commonality of human experience.

Hailey’s work confronts viewers with imagery that is simultaneously sensual, humorous, repellant and strangely familiar, in compositions that expand to communicate a sweeping range of emotions. The paintings combine art historical references with a personal narrative, investigating contemporary myth making, along with an undercurrent of hidden desire.

In a new series of mixed media prints Hailey’s starting point is a group of his own paintings. These are photographed, digitized, manipulated, printed, and then worked with paint and pen.

The prints are not precursors to painted works, but separate, immediate, and fundamental lines of exploration on their own.

Hailey has always blurred the line between painting and drawing, with his strong emphasis on sensation and sensibilities, combining elements of gestural abstraction, drawing, and writing in a highly idiosyncratic and potent expression.

At once epic and intimate, his work is infused with words, names, and references to poetry, mythology, and history

Bill Hailey currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.