Michael Pearce
Michael Pearce is an English figurative painter who lives in Ventura County, California.
While on the surface Pearce’s paintings are romantic escapes from the hard edges of daily life, celebrating colorful flowers and beautiful people, there’s a mythic depth to them that reveals the artist feeling his way out of negative deconstruction by drawing upon archetypes and allegories from the West’s deep past, from centuries-old emblem books and alchemical symbolism. Pearce digs for conceptual themes in the paintings that capture his audience by encouraging their individual imaginative interpretation of the events he has painted. There’s meaning here – a reconstruction of ideas bigger than ourselves – that makes these paintings feel greater than their already large size.
In addition to his successful career as a painter Pearce has a background in archeology, scenography and installation art. Although he has lived in California since 1990, his love for the ancient landscapes of his previous homes in Wiltshire and Devon has never left him and has powerfully influenced his work, and he regularly visits England. He teaches painting and drawing at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, where he is responsible, with his friend Michael Lynn Adams, for organizing The Representational Art Conferences (TRAC). He is editor of the Proceedings of the conferences. He is author of Art in the Age of Emergence, a remarkable book about the aesthetics of representational art in the emergent age.
Michael Pearce is an English figurative painter who lives in Ventura County, California.
While on the surface Pearce’s paintings are romantic escapes from the hard edges of daily life, celebrating colorful flowers and beautiful people, there’s a mythic depth to them that reveals the artist feeling his way out of negative deconstruction by drawing upon archetypes and allegories from the West’s deep past, from centuries-old emblem books and alchemical symbolism. Pearce digs for conceptual themes in the paintings that capture his audience by encouraging their individual imaginative interpretation of the events he has painted. There’s meaning here – a reconstruction of ideas bigger than ourselves – that makes these paintings feel greater than their already large size.
In addition to his successful career as a painter Pearce has a background in archeology, scenography and installation art. Although he has lived in California since 1990, his love for the ancient landscapes of his previous homes in Wiltshire and Devon has never left him and has powerfully influenced his work, and he regularly visits England. He teaches painting and drawing at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, where he is responsible, with his friend Michael Lynn Adams, for organizing The Representational Art Conferences (TRAC). He is editor of the Proceedings of the conferences. He is author of Art in the Age of Emergence, a remarkable book about the aesthetics of representational art in the emergent age.
Michael Pearce - Rock and Roll Death (oil on canvas) 49.5" x 31"
Michael Pearce - I Think I Love You (oil on canvas) 49.5" x 31"
Jenny Fine
Jenny Fine received a BFA from the University of Alabama and an MFA from The Ohio State University. In 2001, Fine taught at China’s University of Geosciences in Wuhan, China. In 2002, she spent the summer working at Susana Homes Orphanage and Women’s Shelter in Nigeria. Fine was awarded a National Windgate Fellowship from the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in 2006 and a Fergus Memorial Scholarship from The Ohio State University in 2009. She taught art at The Ohio State University in 2011, and the same year was selected as an Artist-in-Residence by The Wellington School in Columbus, Ohio, and was awarded an artist residency in Dresden, Germany by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Fine is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Fine has had in solo exhibitions at the Kentuck Gallery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; City Art Center in Delaware, Ohio; Geh8 in Dresden, Germany; Dublin Arts Council in Dublin, Ohio; The Walnut Gallery in Gadsden, Alabama; The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio; Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York, New York; and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, in Dothan, Alabama. Selected group exhibitions include: the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Wiregrass Museum of Art; The Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; and the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama.
Jenny Fine received a BFA from the University of Alabama and an MFA from The Ohio State University. In 2001, Fine taught at China’s University of Geosciences in Wuhan, China. In 2002, she spent the summer working at Susana Homes Orphanage and Women’s Shelter in Nigeria. Fine was awarded a National Windgate Fellowship from the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in 2006 and a Fergus Memorial Scholarship from The Ohio State University in 2009. She taught art at The Ohio State University in 2011, and the same year was selected as an Artist-in-Residence by The Wellington School in Columbus, Ohio, and was awarded an artist residency in Dresden, Germany by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Fine is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Fine has had in solo exhibitions at the Kentuck Gallery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; City Art Center in Delaware, Ohio; Geh8 in Dresden, Germany; Dublin Arts Council in Dublin, Ohio; The Walnut Gallery in Gadsden, Alabama; The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio; Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York, New York; and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, in Dothan, Alabama. Selected group exhibitions include: the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Wiregrass Museum of Art; The Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; and the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama.
Jenny Fine - Flat Granny as a Costume No. 1, 2012-2014, (archival pigment print)
Jenny Fine - Hello Granny No. 3, 2012 (archival pigment print)
Jenny Fine - Feeding Flat Granny, 2012 (archival pigment print)
Jenny Fine - Flat Granny and Me: A Procession in My Mind (2014 performance photo by Rob Muller)