James Croak
Chandelier Mistaken for God
April 1st – May 13th , 2006
Opening Reception, Saturday April 1st, 2006 7 – 10 p.m.
James Croak continues his exploration of the uncanny in his new body of work at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery opening April 1. The show title is derived from a pivotal and included work portraying the very human, and daily attempt to find a universal in common objects, a young kid is shown gaping at a chandelier, imagining it to be sacred. Themes of conceptual figuration continue throughout the show with Croak often using his trademark material, cast dirt, for several of the works. A material that is at once very common and surreal when used in Croak’s portraits of urban figures, typically men, dealing with life in odd ways.
A popular piece entitled the Nymph, a woman of cast dirt crawling
upside down on the ceiling is installed in this show as well as the intense
Double Dirt Man, a dueling Cain and Abel, two men locked
in pointless combat.
Croak says, “It is time to make a culture, we must begin again to
design metaphors which will allow us to grasp and re-describe our world.”
Croak’s show will be on view at the gallery through May 13, valet
parking available.