press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lorri Berenberg 617-536-0800
berenberg@berenberggallery.com
Boston, MA (September 2007) Gabriel
Shaffer: Animal Returns will be on view at the Berenberg Gallery
from Sept. 15 – Nov. 3, 2007.
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 15, 1 – 4 pm.
Poetry reading by R.C. Miller
and discussion with Gabriel Shaffer at 2 pm.
Gabriel Shaffer: Animal
Returns features the most recent work of this self-taught/visionary
artist who lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina. His complex canvases
contain many elements of graffiti, collage, and comic book/cartoon illustration.
Shaffer intricately combines layers of acrylic paint, ink and varnish with text
and collage to create a circuit board of color and texture. Many of the paintings
in this body of work have been triggered by the poems of R.C. Miller, a close
friend of Shaffer’s for over twenty years. Both men have lived through
times when they experienced a loss of meaning that led them down a path of self-destruction.
Both have found solice and recovery through their art and storytelling. Shaffer’s
paintings, like the poems, confront many powerful issues including the apocalypse,
greed, suffering, addiction, overpopulation, environmental collapse, madness,
poverty, and childhood trauma. Shaffer presents these themes in the spirit of
a wild child spinning in joyous celebration. Animal Returns is
ultimately about a journey to the primal core in search of the light that will
lead the way home.
The Berenberg Gallery is Boston’s only gallery exclusively dedicated to the dynamic creations of contemporary folk and self-taught artists.
The Berenberg Gallery is located
at 4 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA
Hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 6 pm. For more information
call (617) 536-0800.