Take Five series 2

Pontus Willfors | Matthew May | Andre Yi

June 8 - June 21, 2013

Selected Works

The Andrew Shire Gallery is pleased to present Take Five: Series 2; the second exhibition in the series will feature the work by Matthew May, Pontus Willfors and Andre Yi.

This series of two and three-person exhibitions will feature Los Angeles-based artists and the improvisational interplay of their artworks.  Although the exhibitions are not thematically based, there is an interesting exchange between each artist and their work in this five part series.

Southern-California based artists May, Willfors and Yi will each present new work for the exhibition.  Each creating individual shows with an over arching theme of nature.

May’s best known for his multi-panel photographic works has delved into his own artistic past developing a complete new body of ceramic works for this show. These anthropomorphic sculptural works are comprised of a series free standing sculptures (which May calls Totems) and a series of larger multi-element wall hanging pieces. May’s extensive investigation on nature has now revealed as concrete sculptural objects rather then pictorial 2-dimensional interpretations.

Willfors continues his investigation of nature and the artifice in this exhibition creating a series of new hybrid tree sculptures.  The largest piece in the exhibition is a multi-element sculpture that has been reconstituted from a sculpture titled Organic Form 2 that he previously created for an exhibition at the Irvine Fine Arts Center.  Willfors in addition will present a tree like form that emerges directly from a 4” x 4” inch piece of wood. Willfors uses both natural and processed wood to create a fusion of the man-made object with nature.

Andre Yi, like Matthew may, has also made a shift in his work.  Yi best known for his architectural and landscape paintings has turned his artistic practice to creating paintings and collages of birds and bird’s nests.  Using a number of different techniques Yi has created a more intimate view and experience in these inventive works.  Yi now focuses his attention on a close up view of nature rather then the macro view of man’s intrusion on nature, (which was the focus in his earlier work.)

All three artist in this exhibition investigate nature but each with his own interpretation and unique use of material.