DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTO
InSanaa by J. Keefer. Saudi-led airstrikes on Sanaa Province, Yemen.
In “Aftermath,” a new exhibition at Fred Giampietro Gallery, a painter’s passion is on full display in the conflict images of New Haven artist John Keefer, whose work is being shown with the sculptural creations of artist Kurt Steger — found object-construction hybrids that bear compelling messages in content and in their physical composition.
The show runs through Feb. 3. An artists’ reception was held on Jan. 6 at the Chapel Street gallery, drawing a sizable crowd despite the prevailing chill and challenging conditions left in the wake of the bomb cyclone several days earlier.
Airstrike by J. Keefer.
Columns of thick, black smoke rise like fear-inducing specters over a low-slung middle east landscape in “Airstrike,” the smallest of John Keefer’s paintings. The work hangs in the gallery window and signals not only a theme of his series, but suggests some discordance as one views the beauty of magnificently rendered paintings at the service of haunting imagery and content.
Gallerist Fred Giampietro.
The themes of war and environmental degradation as presented in “Aftermath” are timely given the precarious national and global political climate, according to gallerist Fred Giampietro. A silent black-and-white video on the gallery’s website flashes scenes of a careening warplane engulfed in fire, its propellers turning slowly as the burning mass yields to the force of gravity. Foot soldiers, a mushroom cloud and an image of a scowling Donald Trump are flashed with subliminal speed, but leave little doubt that the themes are as much a cautionary tale about the future as they are about raising questions about war and its aftermath.
Helicopter by J. Keefer.
Hulking metal carcasses of war-waging machines inhabit the wreckage-strewn landscapes in Keefer’s sizable canvasses — both figure and ground are painted with equal relish. Keefer basks in the interplay of image and painted surface. At the format edges of the paintings and sometimes in other areas, another dimension beyond the figure-ground relationship is revealed. Raw portions of the painting highlight layers of drips and spatters, part of the paintings’ architecture and texture, shared with traces of underlying grids lines that help the artist navigate the sketching phase of the painting process.
Detail: Keefer’s expressive and textural paint application.
Keefer’s pictorial inspiration is drawn from photographic images culled from the public domain. He describes himself as a “reiterator” — akin to Andy Warhol, one of his artistic influences, who built a career from recontextualizing objects and imagery from popular culture. Keefer said he recently learned a “whole new thing” about oil paint after encountering a painting by abstract expressionist icon Willem de Kooning, known for copious use of the oil medium catalyzed by expressionistic strokes, sometimes referred to as action painting.
Pink Jacket by J. Keefer.
The human toll of war is also expressed in Keefer’s figurative paintings depicting the bloodied faces of victims who have been battered by explosion overpressure (shock) waves; their bodies have escaped the direct impact of the bomb blast, but shock and trauma endure as part of the internalized, psychological landscape of war’s victims.
Interviewed in his Westville studio, Keefer acknowledged that his paintings may lack broad public appeal due to their difficult subject matter, but noted that this is by design.
“I decided that my strategy as an artist would be to do what people want the least,” he said. His “baldly contrarian” approach insulates him from doing what is safe — from creating images moored in the harbor of blandness. Keefer said that, ultimately, he sees his conflict series as “a more spiritual statement than political.”
Urban Structure by Kurt Stegler.
If Keefer’s work focuses on the failed interactions of humans that result in war and its gritty aftermath, Kurt Steger’s sculptures highlight the human impact on built and natural environments, and ultimately, on the fabric of community. “As that relates to urban structures, my hope is that through gentrification, destruction of communities and dislocation, a potential for new and progressive ways of development and livelihood may occur.”
Steger sculpture with Cubist quality.
Steger marries the detritus from demolition sites — usually chunks of concrete he has collected from various communities of personal significance — with new architectural forms he constructs from panels of thin wood. The resulting constructed “dwellings” rise from the surface and soul of the artifact, suggesting a hopeful regeneration that honors the past while connecting to the present and future.
Steger works in both small and large scale and is looking to build a larger, walkable version.
Constructed wood portions are surfaced with a variety of textures and patinas suggesting concrete or bronze, but may also be left in natural finishes that reveal an architectural precision and handsome contrast with the more organic appearance of the concrete mass.
Steger gives archaeological attention to the artifacts he collects. “I note the location of the find, I Google Map it, notice the change of the area over the past few years and will document the change over the future of the site,” he said.
Occasional use of brilliant color.
In building his minimalist architectural sculptures, Steger foregoes a formal plan or blueprint.
“I bring the piece back to my studio and contemplate the shape and what ‘wants’ to be built upon it,” he said. “I have great trust in my intuitive ability when my hands are working and I just trust the process of creating the shape by following my hands…. I experience that the melding of the intelligence of the heart and the mind can be bridged by the hand.”
Not all is left to intuition, however, as Steger employs some methods and practices that may never be known to the viewer.
“I have always used my creations as a time capsule,” Steger said. “An old carpenter’s trick is to leave a coin, a note, or a newspaper to reflect the era that the work was done. I do this with most of my works; there may be notes of my take on contemporary life inside the structure.”
Artist Susan McCaslin, left, Steger center.
During the exhibit’s opening reception, Steger lifted one of his “solid” architectural structures that appeared so seamlessly scribed to the concrete’s jagged contours, revealing a shell and its meticulously crafted structure, a practice he does not discourage for viewers of his work.
John Keefer, left, Kurt Steger, right.
Steger’s concern for the natural world and the way humans manage the legacy of their constructed landscapes is as longstanding as it is hopeful.
“Throughout all my work I am hoping to bring this concern to the forefront in the hope that as humans learn to love and to realize how incredible this gift of the natural world and our life is,” he said. “There will ultimately be a healing between man and nature and we will choose to live in a sustainable and ‘good’ way.”
“Aftermath” runs through Feb. 3 at Fred Giampietro Gallery, 1064 Chapel St. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. For more information please call the gallery at (203) 777‑7760.