On Thursday, November 1 from 6 to 8 p.m., join the Arts Council for Long Beach, for an Open Conversation with Murky Realms artist Peter Zokosky. Curators Brian Trimble and Terry Braunstein will lead an informal discussion about process, about influences, and about his life as an artist.
Murky Realms presents the work of Cynthia K. Evans and Peter Zokosky, two of the most highly regarded artists working in Long Beach today. Both are incredibly skilled at their craft and both draw from historic traditions. Evans references the rich history of Indian miniatures and illuminated manuscripts and Zokosky the old masters. Evans creates small, but vivid and masterful narratives that have the presence of much larger works. Zokosky has spent years honing his skills and creating works with the technical virtuosity of the Baroque painters he admires. While the practices of both artists have roots in historic painting traditions, their work is contemporary and relevant.
Evans’ and Zokosky’s paintings differ in many ways, yet there is commonality in the nature of their practices and paintings. Evans’ work is figurative and incorporates elements of collage, while Zokosky’s continually returns to portraiture. And yet, the symbolic nature of both artists’ works draws the viewer away from the “painterly” and into a liminal realm that straddles reality and other layers of meaning, belief, and feeling that hover just beneath the surface. They have both had their work compared to that of the Surrealists, portraying the fantastic, as though it could strangely exist in the real world. These narratives and glimpses into murky realms leave the viewer with an uncomfortable feeling that these images could not only be part of our reality, but actually could be us.
The exhibition is on view at the Collaborative Gallery (421 W. Broadway) through December 21, with gallery hours Wednesday–Saturday from 12:30–5 p.m.