BFA Visual & Critical Studies is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by SVA faculty Bill Komoski. Below is a statement from the artist.

"I wrote a song titled 'Civil War.' It has a repeated refrain: 'The thirst wouldn’t wait/yeah, we burned, burned down the gate.' In the song, I conjure dark, tragic images, the results of when tribalism and hatred take hold and the gates of hell are flung open: Like moths to a flame, the people rush in. Though the image of a burning gate appears prominently in this installation, I intend its associative possibilities to be much broader than those in the lyrics. I only bring them up as one possible way in. Along with moths and flames, another motif I’ve been working with are flowers. I am interested in combining a certain exuberance and visual pleasure with the idea of nature gone haywire, collapse and decay. The slideshow consists of stock images of flowers along with images I photographed off a television screen from the movie House of Wax (1953). In the film, the artist (played by Vincent Price) who sculpts the “lifelike” wax figures becomes wildly unhinged when they are destroyed in a fire. Wax melts, flowers wilt.

In addition to representational elements, I employ a rather mechanically repetitive pattern, such as a grid or dot screen—patterns that represent an efficient and predictable order. Against this order, I often layer and weave other elements that tend to destabilize and complicate the static nature of the grid: collapse the order.

The smaller-scale paintings here engage physicality through a mix of materials. The large-scale work is painted on commercially available drop cloths. I like the fact that they provide a monumental scale while retaining a fairly informal physicality. And that they might function nicely in a traveling circus, tent revival or as curtains or backdrop in a small theater. (No, I won’t be writing the play.)"

For more information on the exhibition please contact the artist at billkomoski@gmail.com.

Exhibition

Bill Komoski

SVA Flatiron Project Space