Samuel Lynne Galleries is pleased to announce the opening reception for artist Bernie Taupin’s exhibition Anarchaeology (an-ahr-kee-ol-uh-jee), curated by Karen & Michael Bivins, on September 12, 2015 from 5 – 8 pm. Artist will be in attendance at the opening reception, and the exhibition will be on view through October 23, 2015. For a digital catalogue of Bernie Taupin’s oeuvre, please use this link: http://issuu.com/slg2008/docs/bernie_taupin_issuu_catalogue_
Largely recognized for his longtime songwriting partnership with Elton John, Bernie Taupin continues to delight and surprise even those who think they know him best. In addition to lyricist, musician, producer, author, and award winner, Bernie Taupin is also a serious visual artist. He describes this creative avenue as, “simply the visual extension of what I have spent my life creating through words”.
Anarchaeology (an-ahr-kee-ol-uh-jee) comments on the ability of governments to cause chaos, create and perpetuate poverty and misery, and ultimately destroy civilizations. With titles like Agitate, Disambiguation, Lear In Madness, and Explore Noise, the paintings in this exhibition ignite intense emotion in viewers. The severely contrasting light and dark colors, fragmented edges, and torn middles of these paintings reflect the disturbance and pain of their subjects. There is harmony but it is somewhat harrowing. Viewers are able to draw similarities to the powerfully emotional artworks of Anselm Kiefer, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still – artists who Bernie Taupin has found a particular kinship with.
Bernie Taupin’s paintings often hover gracefully around the canons of both the Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art movements. His paintings are proof that abstraction can contain emotion, that nothing is off limits, and that painting has the power to be simultaneously violent and lovely. His stunning canvases are composed of abstract shapes, tantalizing color, and cryptic social commentary, captured in multimedia form. A man of limitless creativity, Bernie Taupin uses his alchemical skills to explore the visceral relationships between color and texture through his wide array of media; he often uses acrylic and oil paint, but stretches the standards of conventional media to include wood stains, spray paint, cheesecloth, wax, glass, bubble wrap, metal, and paper. His paintings become a product of his own kind of contained chance, as he controls and manipulates the dripping paint, in a way that almost can’t be contained by the canvas. The canvases in his body of work have been sewn, shellacked, smothered, and splattered upon using his arsenal of studio tools and weaponry.
Bernie Taupin’s artwork has been exhibited nationally from New York to Los Angeles, and his work can also be found in numerous significant private collections throughout the United States. Taupin’s newest exhibition, Anarchaeology (an-ahr-kee-ol-uh-jee) represents yet another evolution of his creative vision.
To schedule an interview or exclusive press preview, please contact
Karen Bivins, Director of Samuel Lynne Galleries, 214.965.9027, Karen@SamuelLynne.com
