NEW YORK—Mike Weiss Gallery is exhibiting an emotionally charged series of portraits by Piet van den Boog. Dramatic in scale, color and execution, the paintings in “Battered and Bruised” were created using a process akin to cosmetic healing, wounding and repair.
The gallery describes the Dutch artist’s approach thus: “His masterful application of paint is calculated and controlled, while areas of exposed metal are worn and weathered by acids and other oxidizing chemicals in a process left mostly to chance.” Van den Boog’s powerful series includes two self portraits.
“Battered and Wounded” is on view from Feb. 23 to March 24, 2012.
All photos by Arts Observer
From left, “I am still raw,” and “Love like you’ll never be hurt,” both 2011.
“Love like you’ll never be hurt,” 2011 (acrylic, oil, rust, azurite and malachite on lead mounted on wood). Van den Boog adapted the titles of the paintings from song lyrics and poems.
From left, “Character is fate,” 2012 (acrylic, oil, rust, azurite and malachite on oxidized lead mounted on wood); “I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions (self-portrait),” 2011 (acrylic, oil and rust on lead mounted on wood).
From left, “If there is one thing you can say about mankind, there’s nothing kind about man” 2012 (acrylic, oil, rust, azurite and malachite on oxidized lead mounted on wood); “All the world is green,” 2012.
“Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now (self-potrait),” 2011 (acrylic, oil and rust on lead mounted on wood).
“I am still raw,” 2011 (acrylic, oil and rust on lead mounted on wood).