BUCKHANNON — ART26201 will present ‘Buried Barriers,’ a solo exhibition by WV mixed media painter Evan Boggess, Friday, July 16, 2021, at the M.I.B. GALLERY in the Colonial Arts Center. There will be a special opening artist’s reception from 4 to 8 p.m., where Boggess will be available to speak about his body of work.

In addition to the opening event on July 16, the M.I.B. GALLERY in the Colonial Arts Center will be open from 4-8 p.m. on July 17, 23, 24, 30 and 31; and August 6 and 7.

All events at the M.I.B. Gallery are free and open to the public. Significant financial assistance for the Colonial Arts Center Rehabilitation project has been provided by the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History; ART26201; and Buckhannon Community Theatre.

About Evan Boggess:
Evan Boggess is a native West Virginian whose paintings draw heavily from the people, cultures, and geographic features of the region. He currently maintains a home studio in the Eastern Panhandle of the state with his wife Kayla and two children. His work has been widely shown, with recent exhibitions in Taos, NM; Miami, FL; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL.; Arlington, VA; Asheville, NC; Cincinnati, OH; Raleigh, NC; Scranton, PA; and throughout WV. Boggess is currently the director of Phaze 2 Gallery at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV, where he is also a full-time lecturer for the Department of Contemporary Art and Theater.

Artist’s Statement:
“The work in Buried Barriers aims to visualize the exhilaration and anxiety induced by uncertainty. I seek out any subject matter and layering processes that allows my studio practice to remain suspended in unsure territory.
My process in larger paintings is layered with barriers, or obstacles, that are intended to throw off predictable design choices. These barriers are usually visible as early stages of the images that have been masked off, painted over, forgotten, and unearthed after the conventional composition is nearly finished. The early layers can make or break a composition when they re-emerge, and they demand of me a higher degree of spontaneity and flexibility in the late stages of a painting. I value the tension that comes from painting over the masked off areas, knowing that some of it will be lost in the end.

The elements of uncertainty in my portraiture are found less in the layering process and more in the psychological tension between the figure and the context in which they are presented. These figures are almost always placed in direct juxtaposition with an element of obscuration or abstraction.

The paintings in Buried Barriers are not necessarily about uncertainty, but they were made in and with uncertainty. I see them now as reactions to the global turbulence of the past years; an effort to turn the weight of not knowing into something generative.”