Chet Augustine / Ljubomir Rastovski(Rastovski, February 18–March 8, 1987)This show unites two artists who are motivated by similar spiritual and moral concerns but whose work is as varied as that human interpretation prompts. Augustine's large canvases are inventions that forge various remnants of a remembered culture and its jagged symbols with the unstoppable and regenerating structures of an overripe nature. His cavernous images, like icons or totems, reach into the spiritual core and shockingly hold us accountable for misguided motivation. Monuments from the depths of city thought, illuminate as a beacon, the scattered results of our reckless accumulations. He paints taboos to keep us on track. Ljubomir Rastovski shows us the structure of the spiritual. His sculptures and wall pieces are tribal artifacts that illustrate the strength possible in the balancing of delicate components. Some of his creations are like altar pieces from a more pedestrian, though reverent , church; more concerned with uplifting by appreciation of the found objects in the neighborhood and their fervent embellishment than by blind devotion. Though haunting in a sparseness from which all ephemera has been stripped, they stand as testament to man's quest for a calm order. They're powerful and affecting in the way they combine the familiar images of Christian iconography in new contexts with rough and raw tribal techniques and images of the ancient man. (press release) |