Through Sept. 27, the The Russian Academy of Fine Arts Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, presents a 70-piece solo show of Los Angeles-based artist and CalArts alumnus Shane Guffogg’s (Art BFA 86) work. The exhibit, called GUFFOGG, is the largest in Russia by any living American artist.
GUFFOGG takes up the entire second floor space of the museum and features the artist’s pastels on paper, hand-blown murano glass sculptures and oil on canvas works, including his signature illuminated ribbon series.
In a press release, Guffogg says, “My paintings are an extension of our contemporary landscape intertwining abstract rhythms of line and color via thin layers of paint, each forming a glazing effect. By the time each painting is complete it may have 70 to 80 layers upon it, each creating a translucent quality and so light serves as a visual metaphor for the mystical.”
Guffogg is a painter whose work features “radiant, fairly humming surfaces, replete with the caprices of refractive light trapped inside their own skin,” according to art ltd. magazine. His work has been shown in galleries and museums all over California, including the Hammer Museum in Westwood.
Guffogg is represented by the art gallery The Lodge, and to celebrate the St. Petersburg exhibition, the gallery is publishing The Observer is the Observant, and hosts a book signing for the artist on Aug. 29. The 200-page hardcover book features photos of the artist and his work, as well as essays in both English and Russian.
Above is a slideshow of selected photos from GUFFOGG.
Event Details
GUFFOGG
Aug. 7 through Sept. 27
Russian Academy of Fine Arts Museum
17, Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya
Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia
Free
Book Signing with the Artist
Aug. 29
The Lodge
1024 N. Western Ave., Los Angeles
Free