Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 2020

Octavia Art Gallery | Houston is pleased to present ATOMIC COLOR, an exhibition featuring paintings with strong vivid colors and hard-edges by Charlie Edmiston, Kurt Herrmann, and Greta Van Campen.

Charlie Edmiston began his career as a graffiti artist working in a variety of styles and mediums, including colorful hard-edge paintings, large scale murals, and bold design graphics. He later expanded his work to include letters and geometric shapes, which formed the basis of his mixed media, abstract paintings. Edmiston was born in and resides in Los Angeles. He received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, CA.  He has exhibited nationally and internationally including Scope Miami, FL; Urban Art Fair, France; Urban Art Exhibition, Taiwan; and Avenue des Arts Gallery, CA, upon many more. During the fall of 2019, he participated in an artist residency at Hotel El Ganzo, in San Jose del Cabo, MX.

Kurt Herrmann creates both figurative and abstract work, but above all he is a colorist at heart.

He intends for his paintings to radiate across the room but to also whisper quietly beside the viewer, with big sound and silence. His shapes, forms, and colors have been extracted from his own surroundings and memories, but also from places he’s always dreamed to see. Sometimes included in his paintings are tree trunks, winter skies, deer legs, the bright pink from a watermelon and Greek islands. “The colors, silence, space, seasons, landscape, even the rednecks impact everything I make. It’s inescapable.” Herrmann was born in and resides in the mountains of Lock Haven, PA and obtained a BFA from Lock Haven University. He has exhibited around the world, and most recently at Scope Miami Beach, FL; Penny Contemporary, AU; The Other Art Fair, AU, 12 Gallery, NZ. He has also exhibited at Sidewinder Gallery, IL, which was featured in Time Out Chicago and at James Oliver Gallery, PA, featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Greta Van Campen is known for her geometric hard-edged graphic approach to representation. She has traveled across the United States sourcing inspiration from the landscapes, small towns, and cities. Now, with a young family, she gets most of her inspiration close to home. Scenic ocean views and paintings of flowers from her gardens make up the bulk of her new work. She paints in her home studio, beginning each piece with a photograph she has taken. She uses the photo as a reference while drawing from memories of her experiences, sometimes also working from sketches done on location. The image is translated into a painting by first setting large compositional elements and then finding shapes and masking off areas with tape, mixing the desired color of paint, and continuing to tape and paint until the desired amount of detail is reached. This distilled and stylized approach imbues her traditional subject matter with a freshness and modernity. As Van Campen explains, she “figure(s) out how to recreate a version of the natural, atmospheric place by turning it into a more geometric, color and balance-driven scene that is hopefully appealing, interesting, and authentic.” Van Campen was born in and resides in Maine. She received her BFA from Bowdoin College, ME. She is represented by Octavia Art Gallery, LA & TX, and Dowling Walsh Gallery, ME. She has exhibited at Gallery BOM, MA; J GO Gallery, UT; Hespe Gallery, CA; Firecat Projects, IL, among many more.

Sharp-edges and attention grabbing hues are the commonalities found in the paintings by Charlie Edmiston, Kurt Herrmann, and Greta Van Campen. Please join us in experiencing ATOMIC COLOR, an explosive exhibition with crisp color bombs of pure vibrancy.