Sunshine on a Greased Pearl

Studio17 is proud to present an exhibition with new paintings by Travis Boyer. Boyer is currently artist-in-residence at Frida Hansens hus in Stavanger and the new group of paintings combine the artist’s interest in figuration and abstraction, materials and techniques, history and slippery surfaces. Several of the canvases have been treated with a photographic emulsion to create cyanotypes in the sun. In this case, Boyer has used belts to create shapes that he combines with dyes, oils, and paints to create a body of work that oscillate between the tradition of painting and dyeing fabrics.

Several of the paintings are inspired in part by Boyer’s residency at Frida Hansen, be it landscapes or the summer sun, which never sets, or the motifs and techniques utilized by Hansen. The abstracted landscapes contrast the belts, and create a combination of visuals, materials, and points to an extended history of art, which entails design and lesser forms of visual culture. In addition to the new body of work created in Rogaland, Boyer will show a vessel, Tequila Netipot, made in sterling silver. This work responds to a site in Mexico, in a similar fashion that the painting in «Sunshine on a Greased Pearl» respond to the strange luminosity and colors of Norway, mapping aspects of this experience into his own symbolic and material language.

Travis Boyer is based in New York and holds an MFA from Bard College in New York, His work has been shown at museums and institutions including Johnnes Vogt Gallery; Goethe Institute, New York; New York; Participant Inc, New York; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; and Stedellijk Museum, Amsterdam.