PICTURE PERFECT
A 20-artist group show
“There seems to be a common thread amongst realists—that is, they never think a painting is done,” says artist and gallery owner Robert Lange. This is the thought that led to Robert Lange Studios’ upcoming group show, Perfectionists, which features 20 of the top realist artists working today.
Inspired by realists’ meticulous and, sometimes, downright obsessive nature, the exhibition explores just how “real” realists can be by challenging these artists—known for employing the smallest of brushes, magnifying glasses and ample time—to create incredibly detailed works “perfect” enough to display within a structured time frame.
“The show ended up with such a wonderful range of takes on the theme,” Lange reflects. “There are landscape painters tackling impossibly difficult scenes they have feared to paint and figurative artists creating huge, close-up paintings where every pore of a face is on display.”
Embodying a creative take on the show’s theme is an oil painting by Patrick Kramer. In the work titled A Perfectionist’s Lament, Kramer shows the destruction of Vincent van Gogh’s iconic Starry Night. The scene depicted is one where the artist has completed the work, then scraped it down after deciding it’s not good enough, with the spackle knife sitting next to the nearly completely destroyed painting. “My idea for the piece was to convey the passion, frustration and regret that so frequently accompanies perfectionism, exemplified in the life of Van Gogh,” Kramer says. “Finding his work lacking, the artist has destroyed his own masterpiece. Forever unsatisfied, he’ll start again.”
Juxtaposing this sense of frustration is the order found in Christopher Stott’s Underwood No. 5. At the focal point of the painting is an impeccably rendered typewriter. Though at first glance it may seem that Stott portrays a simple inanimate object, each key lays perfectly flat and Stott was extremely careful in his efforts to create a perfectly balanced composition—both top to bottom and left to right—going as far as
adding a pencil to counterbalance how the typewriter has been slid to hold the paper to the right side. Look a little closer and the detail is painstaking. “When I set up a group of objects for a painting I always consider negative space, repeating elements, shapes, angles, lines, perspective—everything that moves the eye around the canvas,” he says. “…The overall effect I am trying to create is a sense of order, calmness and stability. Painting these objects transforms them from cold and banal tools to something more human and hopefully pulls a viewer in to think about how they relate to the world of objects around them.”
Through his Trompe l’Oeil paintings, Anthony Waichulis hopes “to draw viewers into a comprehensive visual investigation with noses a few mere centimeters from the surface.” About his oil Icon, which depicts a crumpled up dollar bill, the artists says, “It is my hope that the intricate complexities that I strategically packaged into this minute work will successfully communicate a significant commitment to earning that moniker.”
Also specializing in Trompe l’Oeil is Natalie Featherston, who paints directly from life, constructing collage models for her paintings using found objects, vintage photos, paper cutouts, embroidery and beads. In works like Spreading Love Across the Seas—on view in Perfectionists—she creates an invented realm of humor and whimsy, drawing viewers in with storytelling and narrative. “There’s plenty of darkness in the world,” she says. “I want to make paintings that spark joy and connect with the viewer in a meaningful way.”
Perfectionists will be on view at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina, from May 3 through May 29, with an opening reception on May 3 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Robert Lange Studios 2 Queen Street • Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 805-8052 • www.robertlangestudios.com