- This event has passed.
Line + Shape + Color + Noise
August 29, 2020 @ 8:00 am - January 17, 2021 @ 5:00 pm
The Sangre de Cristo Arts Center is pleased to welcome back Sean O’Meallie with the exhibit Line + Shape + Color + Noise from August 29, 2020 – January 17, 2021, in the Hoag Gallery. He last showed at the Arts Center in the early 2000s. Sean is from New Orleans, LA. where he studied art at the University of New Orleans. Since 1977 he has resided in Colorado.
Line + Shape + Color + Noise showcases over 100 new works created over the last two years. O’Meallie, a former toy inventor for the mass-market, uses bright colors and fanciful shapes in playful and humorous ways to express delight, wonderment, and consternation about the noisy philosophical issues of contemporary life.
O’Meallie’s primary medium is wood, which he shapes and paints to an exact high degree and then may rub back to a human-touched patina, or leave glistening. In a casual setting, many of these works (there are over 100 new pieces in the show) would be touched or handled to bring the viewer experience to full fruition, but in this setting, it’s hands-off.
In basswood and maple, O’Meallie sculpts potatoes and exclamation marks, candy and guns, ears and noses and eyes and teeth, melons, and balloons. He paints with both realism and fantastical color palettes to precise effect. A product design sensibility from his years inventing toys for an international mass market is on full display.
Says O’Meallie, “I was a paid toy conceptualist for about ten years wherein I studied the shapes, colors, and patterns of objects as they affect communication with an audience of wide-eyed little people. I use what I learned in the art I make today. I play with the language and allure of objects with my own sense of play to connect with and introduce fresh ideas to the viewer. The viewer is a toy in this and I remain an instigator.”
Some of the works in this exhibit are object groupings evoking thoughts of interrelationship, variation, and inclusion. Others are stand-alone objects with their own poise, but all the works are threaded together into a whole expression of thought, wonder and discovery.
Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for children, seniors 65+, and military. Members free. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 AM to 3 PM. Patrons must wear masks and reserve their time slot in advance at www.sdc-arts.org.