Art exhibition by American Artist Purvis Young (1943-2010) from private collection.
September 23 – November 25
The collection is available for view on Artsy.com / kavachnina contemporary
Young was self-taught, producing a remarkable number of works over his lifetime that convey rich scenes—at once pictorial and spiritual—of his life spent in the inner-city Miami neighborhood of Overtown. Blending techniques of painting, drawing, and collage, Young collected discarded materials found on the streets and in abandoned buildings across his locale to incorporate as the surfaces for his work. Paintings from the exhibition ,made from the mid-1970s through the ‘90s , reveal formal and thematic resonances that together reflect the great breadth of Young’s prescient work .Young sketched and painted countless seascape, incorporating overcrowded boats, sharks and dramatic skies.Stories about immigrants and refugees boats arriving, being turned away, nor capsizing near Florida’s shores and elsewhere were constantly in Young’s life, his grandmother was one of Bahamian refugees.Young painted faces of his neighbors, friends, angels, Christ, musicians such as Isaac Hayes ,as well as historic figures including the abolitionist John Brown and the leader of the Oglala Lakota, Crazy Horse.Haloes appear on many , emphasizing his veneration of these figures.Some are crying and many are situated among mountains and fields , away from the city.Horses appear frequently in Young’s paintings and in various settings: clustered together in herds;; in battle scenes with warriors on their backs; in cityscapes stacked amongst buildings; roaming free through landscapes.When asked about horses, he said :” The horses to me , Represent freedom…I like them to run wild”