Synopses & Reviews
Artforum magazine said of Barnarby Furnas's debut solo show that the real drama lies not so much in the kissing, shooting, and running figures that populate Furnas's pictures as in the artist's knowing investigation of painterly form. Revisiting the dichotomies at the heart of modernist painting, Furnas manipulates the boundaries between figure and ground, form and formlessness, and figuration and abstraction. His often violent oil paintings and watercolors also investigate the human condition, evoking fantasies and nightmares of love, death and conflict in a style influenced by special effects and video game animation. Subjects range widely, but a unity of theme prevails: John Brown portrays the legendary antislavery militant; Suicide, a man's head exploding into fireworks. Furnas is based in Brooklyn, and has exhibited to great acclaim in both the UK and the United States, where he is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. This, his first monograph, includes an essay by critic Martin Herbert and an in-depth interview with the artist.
Synopsis
Known for his epic canvases, vibrant palette, and explosive brushwork, Barnaby Furnas is one of the most visually audacious painters working today. This first monograph, which spans the course of his skyrocketing career, traces the evolution of his oeuvre and reveals the intricacies of his complex compositions. Dramatic and provocative, the paintings in
Barnaby Furnas radiate with frenetic energy and turbulence, while exploring archetypal themes of love, death, and war.
These powerful images, which have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, flirt with the boundaries of abstraction and figuration, while challenging the conventions and limits of expressionist painting. From the apocalyptic violence of epic battlefield scenes to the driving ecstasy of rock concerts, Furnas's paintings are dramatic spectacles of line, color, and movement.
About the Author
Barnaby Furnas has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. He is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery, Stuart Shave/Modern Art, and Anthony Meier Fine Arts.
Shamim M. Momin is the Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Carroll Dunham is an artist whose work has been widely exhibited internationally.