February 13 – March 14, 2020
Artist’s Talk with Dennis Hanshew Saturday, February 29th, from 2 – 4 pm
First Friday Artists’ Reception March 6th, 6 – 9 pm
Dennis Hanshew’s paintings are paired with Elizabeth Bennett’s text pieces in a dynamic exhibit at Gearbox Gallery, Feb. 13th – March 14. Both artists rely on process to add depth of meaning to their work. Bennett uses the rising tide to distort and erase texts, symbolizing inevitable change over time, much like the evolution of thought and language. Hanshew’s confident and sensitive application of paint is a meditative act, revealing his subjects’ inner psychologies. Paired together, the quotations become the projections of individuals, and the portraits and figures become the embodiment of the words.
Dennis Hanshew’s Artist Statement:
At its best while working on a painting I am transported to another realm where all intrusions are nullified and I am simply “in the painting.” The process for me is always one of finding order. It is a balancing act. A line or shape demands another, and that another, and another, back and forth until the composition reaches its conclusion, when all is in order and balanced. It is both an intuitive process and a cognitive one. It is a dance between intense observation and the physical act.
Beginning in 2018 I returned to the figure and portraiture in a monochromatic palette. By limiting myself to shades of black, white, gray and some metallic pigments, the elements of design are more visually apparent. These paintings are oil on canvas or oil on wood panel. The portraits are psychological studies and there is a melancholy inherent to all of them; a beauty and sadness reflective of our time.
