Rory Golden
I Loved You All AlongIn Residence: September 5 - October 19, 2007Opening Reception: October 18, 6:00 - 8:00pmExhibition: continues through November 2, 2007Rory Golden is a New York based visual artist raised in rural Ohio. While in residence at PlatteForum, he completed a series of mixed media portraits of ArtLab youth who worked with him. In his tar paintings, layers of roofing tar, house paint and oil paint are scraped, drawn and written into. The materials are messy and create a fluid, impermanent looking surface, while the over-painting of oil wash creates a flatter surface that's more traditionally beautiful. So you have these faces with running tar and house paint running down like rain or tears (you really see the process in the surface) with a more solid background that makes the figure float or stand out from the flat ground. Despite the crude materials the pieces, at 3' x 4', have a powerful sense of beauty. Golden lead ten mixed and new media workshops where ArtLab students learned Golden's techniques while producing work of their own. Golden's work addresses social issues such as homelessness, prejudice, unfairness, violence and equality."The title of the show "I Loved You All Along" in part refers to the philosophical notion I've been exploring of late that everything we experience in life is love and we don't necessarily recognize it. How do we resolve the human experience of things like racism, poverty and violence with the notion of a loving creative force (God if you will) or just the idea that things like this are contained in one big loving universe? In any case, in these portraits I'm also loving the subjects by drawing their visages and this in itself may be a healing act. I hope so." GoldenAbout the ArtistWhile growing up in Ohio, Golden participated in Wittenberg University's Upward Bound program. That experience provided him with a greater understanding of racial diversity that became the foundation of his art for communicating important social issues. Golden spent three years researching and producing major works:Your One Black Friend, Paintings and Books by Rory Golden (2006), See Related Story - ”The Murder of J.R. Warren (2007- a national tour to commence in 2008 (www.seerelatedstory.com). Golden received his MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama, and has been an artist in resident at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Yaddo, and Blue Mountain Center. He was the past Executive Director of the Center for Book Arts (www.centerforbookarts.org) in New York. This past year Golden was distinguished as a National Academy of Art Abbey Mural Workshop Fellow and an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Community Access Television/Rotunda Gallery.www2.pittstate.edu/art/univgal/RoryGolden/
Sponsored in part byRiverfront Park Community Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Colorado Council on the Arts, Land Title Guarantee, St. Mary Land & Exploration, Vectra Bank, Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation + Friends of PlatteForumSpecial thanks to:Efrain Cruz, Mark Kling, Dena Pastorini, Caroline Ellett, Karen Saenz, Cindy Haner, Ana Smith, PlatteForum Board of Directors and our wonderful volunteers.
