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Email PageDerek Buckner 2006
September 1, 2006- October 2, 2006
Reception: September 7, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Derek Buckner
George Billis Gallery
511 W 25th St Derek Buckner Goliath |  Derek Buckner Overpass #14 |  Derek Buckner Overpass #15 |
Derek Buckner draws his inspiration from the beauty within the seemingly banal settings of suburban houses and intersecting freeways. These scenes do not depict particular areas of the United States but archetypal representations of American suburbia. Buckner uses expressive, elemental brushwork to depict vital images of the contemporary American landscape and infuses his subjects with energy. He also chooses subjects that emphasize the anxiety of modern suburban life. Buckner states, “.... I am attracted to American productivity-- its excess and fecundity in the twenty first century. It is also by seeing beyond our preconceived notions of place that I find splendor in tract housing glowing in the evening sun or the intertwining of concrete freeways in the heat of the day.” Buckner uses video imagery as source material for his paintings. By working from looped segments of videos taken from airplanes and moving cars, Derek Buckner endeavors to capture the anxiety of modern life through the constant repetition of his documented subject. Through watching the looped imagery over and over again the subjects he paints become detached from any specific time or place. This process enables the eventual expression of his vision.
Derek’s vibrant palate and his paintings’ intense light give his subject matter a reverential weight. Buildings and garages appear not only as elements of the suburban environment but also as blocks of color and light. The artist states, “There is a natural abstraction that occurs in our immediate surroundings. In my work I hope to show the viewer the delicate balance between the real and the abstract and to expose not only the terrifying and heroic nature of our suburban sprawl, but also it’s often haunting and surprisingly quiet beauty. There is common American desire to avoid highways and suburbs and seek out a more nostalgic idea of our country. By doing this we deny the reality of our societal structures. It is by focusing on the freeway system and planned communities that I wish to emphasize the inconsistencies of what we desire to be an authentic American landscape and what truly is the sprawl that defines our lives.”
Derek Buckner grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at Vassar College and received his B.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited in New York, Chicago, Italy, Mexico, East Hampton, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe. His work is in numerous private and corporate collections in this country and abroad. His previous show at the George Billis Gallery in New York was reviewed favorably in the New Yorker, The New York Sun as well as other publications. He has also received reviews in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He was recently selected by Charlotta Kotik of the Brooklyn Museum for a juried show of young painters at Viridian Gallery in Chelsea.
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