Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present two exhibitions featuring the works of artists Matt Kleberg and Jason REVOK. Creating hand-made, one-of-a-kind works on paper, Kleberg continues to explore the realm of abstraction through the lens of color, geometry and his signature archway design, while REVOK revisits his instrument exercise technique.
In the early stages of his artistic career, Texas-born painter Matt Kleberg was initially drawn to imagery of the American South for inspiration—cowboys, long-horned cattle, small birds and antlered skulls—utilizing a color palette saturated with earthy reds and vivid floral hues reminiscent of the rustic landscape. Overtime, his compositions have evolved deeper into the sphere of abstraction, as expressed through the artist’s regular use of forms such as bars, stripes, archways, and radiating beams of light. Within the exhibition, Kleberg presents sixteen unique oil stick drawings on paper, each one depicting a colorful arched passageway, a visual motif repeated in much of his work. Drawing is a significant component of Kleberg’s creative process, used to study and discover the compatibility of visual elements and color as he continuously makes minor changes until the perfect combination is revealed. Kleberg’s paintings seek distance from the drawings they seize inspiration from, ultimately allowing each drawing to remain a unique work of its own.
Jason REVOK is known for pushing creative boundaries in the urban landscape. Although his story begins with graffiti, the artist has spent the last decade focusing on his studio practice and the evolution of process and concept. Today, the artist allows specific formal elements from graffiti culture transition to his contemporary work - modest materials, industrial tools, and ingenuity - but his proclivity towards minimalism and post-painterly abstraction has become the driving force behind his practice. Examining questions around authorship where it was once central to his art form, REVOK has developed systematic yet imperfect tools to carry out his vision. His bold, balanced geometry is contrasted by the personal and imperfect sleight of the human hand. In this series of works on paper, REVOK relies on a self-made tool that holds 8 cans of paint and allows them to spray simultaneously. The device marks a system of lines that move in synergy for an imperfect pattern that could never be created by hand.
Although artists with contrasting backgrounds and visual languages, Matt Kleberg and Jason REVOK are united through their common use of color and geometry, as well as their shared embrace of imperfection. A long-time influence of REVOK’s, Frank Stella is a clear inspiration; however, the artist introduces gestural glitches that disrupt these exacting patterns, reminding us that there is always a human being behind the work. Clear references to Frank Stella can be detected in Kleberg’s work as well, yet, unlike Stella, Kleberg blatantly disregards the use of precise mathematical measurements when drawing and painting, relying solely on means of the hand and eye. The organic forms we see in Kleberg’s work serve as a reminder of the imperfect nature of embodied human perception. The notion of paradox is an additional theme commonly proposed by the two artists — their work often grappling between intention and spontaneity, restriction and chaos, exuberance and tranquility. The exhibition will be on view from November 20, 2020 through January 4, 2021.
