Juxtapoz Magazine – Peter Opheim and Adam Handler are Warriors and Ghosts
GR Gallery is pleased to present Warriors and Ghosts, a primary duo exhibition of Peter Opheim and Adam Handler. The show will feature a total of 21 works, individually created by the two artists appositely for this occasion, that will challenge the exhibition title by unleashing a variety of ghostly paintings and abstraction filled warrior-like figures that will captivate and invite viewers into an experience that illuminates a vibrancy of colors and textures.
“Warriors and Ghosts” aims to exhibit unique techniques that immerse the viewer into a chaotically imaginative world. Both artists create a fantastic realm, populated by whimsical characters that reflect on childish demeanor yet also identifying expressions in the form of solitude, imagination, emotions, and connections. Peter Opheim’s oil paintings are windows into a world of fanciful entropy, pushing boundaries by the unconventional and provocative juxtaposition of childlike inspirations with adult thoughts and emotions. Opheim first creates clay figures that are at once glaring and enriched, then translates his characters onto canvasses. His colorful clay figurines embark his childish fears that are rooted in deformed body parts, unnatural colors, like an archetypal fear that hides behind the innocence of the plot in fairy tales.
Adam Handler creates vividly aesthetic works that cultivate beauty by returning to the supposed primal or elementary beginnings, adopting a child-like style, questioning our conceptions of and presumptions about our surrounding reality. Adam establishes his paintings on the floor leaning over the piece; it’s a personal and psychical experience. Within these intimate confines he feels free to experiment with new concepts. Many of the tiny die-cut works on display represent a purging of his thoughts, passions, insecurities, nightmares and dreams. Adam’s enchanting figures evoke kawaii, Japan’s culture of cuteness, floating in highly patterned, kaleidoscopic environments. Yet, they also point toward our inner yearning for the raw emotional states of adolescence. Handler’s paintings are ultimately maximalist odes to the imagination, populated with psychedelic gardens and surreal spirits.