UCSB, 2004
watercolor and ink on paper
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Outline, 2006
watercolor and ink on paper
Believe the myths and respect your elders
They've lost as much as they've gained, but stay true to yourself
and learn from your children, as they learn from you.
A rolling stone gathers no moss and nothing is found
without first getting lost.
“The lines above come from a page in my journal as I traveled across the country in search of a new station in life in California. When painting landscapes, whether it be en plein aire or in the studio, I paint from a similar perspective. My work is the product of an education based in the European and American traditions and history of art. I strive to capture natural light as the Impressionists once did, while maintaining the spirit of the Expressionists in my search for the unexpected in my mediums. As a contemporary artist the pursuit of my natural individual mark is first priority and I find the farther I get from a plan or a preconceived notion of what a painting must look like, the closer I get to finding my place in the world of art.”
Combining the gestures of an abstract expressionist with the natural light captured in a moment's plein aire painting, Brian Kauppi translates his experience with the landscape through two contrasting artistic languages, the representational and the abstract, creating a new multi-layered perspective as each canvas is moved between the landscape itself, on site, en plein aire, into the studio. Having lived and worked for five years between the cultural and environmental extremes of Brooklyn, NY and rural Southern Chile, Kauppi's creative production reflects a large aesthetic spectrum, and his visual statements are painted according to a bilingual and multi-cultural description. Now living and working full time in California he is attempting to streamline the contrasting influences of his artistic development.
A personal reverence for plein aire painting as an activity to commune with nature and for its immediate record of natural light and a specific moment in time is fundamental to Kauppi's work and crucial to the tension created by its counterpart, the studio. Symbolically representing the interior mind of the artist, and thus, reflecting art historical influences and contemporary agendas, work done in the studio becomes for Kauppi an exercise in expressionist mark making, expanding the visual quality as well as the significance of each piece. Amidst today's perpetual frenzy of press reports of the natural world's deterioration- global warming, oil wars, the concept of permanent climate change, plant and animal extinction, and the resultant longing for a paradise lost, Brian Kauppi is committed to memorializing the collapsing reality of the environment in the timeless genre of landscape painting. Striving for the sublime in composition and color, Kauppi insists that the distance between the landscape and the studio be observed and contemplated.
"I am interested in environments and their effect on perception, how an environment shapes its local civilization , how civilization in turn affects the environment - the timeless struggle between Man and Nature and how this struggle is analogous to the exchanges between the artist and his materials. As a landscape painter, I paint environments. I make paintings for the environment."
BRIAN KAUPPI
briankauppi@yahoo.com
60 8th Avenue, #3
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
203-253-4978
EDUCATION:
University of Virginia, Bachelor of Arts, Graduate with Honor, 1999.
Aunspaugh Fifth Year Fellowship, 2000.
Research and Travel Fellowship, "Poetry in Painting," 1998.
Research and Travel Fellowship, "Primitivism," 1997.
EXHIBITIONS:
"Brian Kauppi: Natural Hybrid," solo show, Pacific Grove Art Center, Pacific Grove, CA, 2009.
"Photography vs. Drawing," Bipolart, Shadow Space, Philadelphia, PA, 2009.
Many Hands Gallery, Capitola, CA, 2009.
Alcala Gallery, La Jolla, CA, 2009.
Galerie Plein Aire, Carmel, CA, 2009.
"New England Seascapes," Action Art Gallery, Old Greenwich, CT, 2008.
Bipolart, Fountain Art Fair, Miami, 2008.
"Jugando con el Arte," Galeria Matthei, Santiago, Chile, 2007.
"The Aerial Perspective Paintings," JHH Fine Art, Greenwich, CT, 2007.
The South Street Gallery, Group Exhibition, Greenport, NY, 2007.
"Save Ocean," One-Way Gallery, Narragansett, RI, 2007.
Exposicion del Grupo Tanagra, Region Bio Bio, Premio de Honor, Chillan, Chile, 2007.
"Paisajes del Campo," Cristina Gonzalez, Chillan, Chile, 2006.
"Bleeding Heart Landscapes," Opus 22, New York, NY, 2006.
"Urban Nature Landscapes," Amanda Brennan, Glen Cove, NY, 2006.
Old Greenwich Art Society, Group Exhibition, Old Greenwich, CT, 2005.
Tiffany Allen Fine Art, Group Exhibition, Port Chester, NY, 2005.
Galeria La Ventana, Feria del Verano, Santiago, Chile, 2005.
"Recent Landscape Paintings," Heather MacAulay, Kensington, MD, 2004.
Green Gallery, Fall Group Exhibition, New York, NY, 2003.
"Outdoor Exhibition," Heather MacAulay, Kensington, MD, 2003.
Green Gallery, Spring Group Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY, 2003.
Greenwich Art Society Group Show, Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT, 2002.
"East Island Landscapes," Jim O'Grady, Glen Cove, NY, 2002.
"Great American Landscapes," Star Hill, Charlottesville, VA, 2000.
"Auto-Tonic Reverberations," Fayerweather Gallery, Charlottesville, VA, 2000.
"Primitive Painting," Fayerweather Gallery, Charlottesville, VA, 1997.
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