Urban Art Association

Evan Hecox "Dark Island" @ Joshua Liner 24/5/12, by JoshuaLinerGallery on May 16, 2012 21:23:20 GMT 1, Our next show is Evan Hecox's new NYC based body of work, "Dark Island".

For this show, Hecox gathered all of his reference imagery during several visits to NYC over the last year. To make this body of work even more authentic, the artist acquired a cache of The New York Weekly Times dating back to the late 1800s!!

Info from the press release, and sample images are attached below.

The gallery will be releasing a new 14 color screen print by Hecox of his painting Five Boroughs in conjunction with the show.

Should you be interested in receiving the preview for this exhibit, please email the gallery directly at info@joshualinergallery.com



Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Dark Island, an exhibition of new mixed-media works by the Denver-based artist Evan Hecox. This presentation will mark his second solo show with the gallery.

Evan Hecox has a roving traveler’s eye—it is the gateway to his art. His passion for exploring unfamiliar cities has taken him to London, Mexico City, and Hanoi. With vintage Polaroid camera in hand, he scours the urban landscape, looking, lingering, absorbing, and editing. The images he captures are not documentary records, per se, but rather impressions of cities left behind in his memory. They set the stage for a stimulating dialogue with personal experience that crosses between different artmaking media and disciplines.

Dark Island—a suite of acrylic and gouache works on vintage newspaper—is inspired by Hecox’s recent hikes across lower Manhattan and west Brooklyn in New York City. As in earlier series inspired by specific locales, the artist focuses here on telling urban fragments: a building façade, rooftop, isolated alleyway, waterfront, or elevated train trellis. Working precisely from photographs, he uses a highly refined process to subtract certain elements, laying down a skeletal vestige of a remembered setting that is then reimagined (or “amplified”) with painterly techniques. Though photography is an early stage in his artmaking practice and employed only as a reference, Hecox relishes the use of his near-obsolete cameras and film, noting, “I like to have a high level of materials and artistry run through the whole process.”

In Five Boroughs, Hecox dispenses with representation altogether, depicting instead the names of the city’s boroughs in an eye-popping, early-Modernist font. These graphic block forms, in an assortment of grays and other muted hues, conjure up Manhattan’s “Dark Island” of architectural greatness, intensity, and romantic memory. Across all of these works, Hecox distills his fascination with urban complexity, layering photojournalistic details, urban detritus, and art history into pentimenti from his own inner landscape. As the artist notes, “I like to use abstract elements, words, and small symbols as ways of breaking apart the original image and putting it back together as something new. My work ultimately looks out into the world to make an observation while at the same time pushing back into my own mind and demonstrating how a particular environment affects my senses.”

Five Boroughs, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on treated vintage newspaper
31 x 44 inches



Brooklyn Auto Repair, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on panel
36 x 48 inches



Block Drugs, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on treated vintage newspaper
31 x 44 inches



99 Cent Dreams, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on treated vintage newspaper
25 x 20 inches

Our next show is Evan Hecox's new NYC based body of work, "Dark Island".

For this show, Hecox gathered all of his reference imagery during several visits to NYC over the last year. To make this body of work even more authentic, the artist acquired a cache of The New York Weekly Times dating back to the late 1800s!!

Info from the press release, and sample images are attached below.

The gallery will be releasing a new 14 color screen print by Hecox of his painting Five Boroughs in conjunction with the show.

Should you be interested in receiving the preview for this exhibit, please email the gallery directly at info@joshualinergallery.com



Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Dark Island, an exhibition of new mixed-media works by the Denver-based artist Evan Hecox. This presentation will mark his second solo show with the gallery.

Evan Hecox has a roving traveler’s eye—it is the gateway to his art. His passion for exploring unfamiliar cities has taken him to London, Mexico City, and Hanoi. With vintage Polaroid camera in hand, he scours the urban landscape, looking, lingering, absorbing, and editing. The images he captures are not documentary records, per se, but rather impressions of cities left behind in his memory. They set the stage for a stimulating dialogue with personal experience that crosses between different artmaking media and disciplines.

Dark Island—a suite of acrylic and gouache works on vintage newspaper—is inspired by Hecox’s recent hikes across lower Manhattan and west Brooklyn in New York City. As in earlier series inspired by specific locales, the artist focuses here on telling urban fragments: a building façade, rooftop, isolated alleyway, waterfront, or elevated train trellis. Working precisely from photographs, he uses a highly refined process to subtract certain elements, laying down a skeletal vestige of a remembered setting that is then reimagined (or “amplified”) with painterly techniques. Though photography is an early stage in his artmaking practice and employed only as a reference, Hecox relishes the use of his near-obsolete cameras and film, noting, “I like to have a high level of materials and artistry run through the whole process.”

In Five Boroughs, Hecox dispenses with representation altogether, depicting instead the names of the city’s boroughs in an eye-popping, early-Modernist font. These graphic block forms, in an assortment of grays and other muted hues, conjure up Manhattan’s “Dark Island” of architectural greatness, intensity, and romantic memory. Across all of these works, Hecox distills his fascination with urban complexity, layering photojournalistic details, urban detritus, and art history into pentimenti from his own inner landscape. As the artist notes, “I like to use abstract elements, words, and small symbols as ways of breaking apart the original image and putting it back together as something new. My work ultimately looks out into the world to make an observation while at the same time pushing back into my own mind and demonstrating how a particular environment affects my senses.”

Five Boroughs, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on treated vintage newspaper
31 x 44 inches



Brooklyn Auto Repair, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on panel
36 x 48 inches



Block Drugs, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on treated vintage newspaper
31 x 44 inches



99 Cent Dreams, 2012
Acrylic and gouache on treated vintage newspaper
25 x 20 inches