Intimate/
Intricate
group exhibition
Luke Buser
Luke Dolkas
Eaan Guardino
guest curated by
AGENDA
Exhibition on view April 23 - May 22, 2022
Gallery hours: Saturday - Sunday,12PM-5PM
or by appointment, email hellosatorprojects@gmail.com
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 23rd from 5PM - 7PM
1607 SE 3rd Ave, 97214
Intimate/Intricate is a group show curated by Jaime Wilson of AGENDA, featuring the work of Luke Buser, Luke Dolkas and Eaan Guardino. The thread of intimacy and intricacy that runs throughout the exhibit refers to both the tedious attention to detail and the relationship to the objects within the work of the artists.
Luke Buser uses typewriters of various fonts and alphabets to weave fastidious grids and sometimes optically challenging patterns into small powerful artworks that compel the viewer to understand how the process is even possible. He sometimes combines this with methods of monoprint and hand embellishment that lend hard edge abstraction to the soldier-straight lines of font. At times the fonts are sent flying into chaos to create pleasing random patterns that feel natural and wind-blown.
Within the work of Luke Dolkas the intimate record keeping of an old and dear friend are treated with reverence and respect as the letters, receipts, keepsakes and souvenirs of his 104 year old friend receive new life in delicate and minimal collage. Outlines and marks draw attention to shapes and rituals and bring the viewer closer to the rich history of relationship that lies within the work.
Eaan Guardino explores in print the details of larger sculpture that is a work in progress. By changing perspective to a floating detail of a larger piece he focuses on both the intimate and intricate frames that together construct the whole. Based on a series of carvings that will ultimately become a chess set, the strong geometric, boldly colored prints take the pieces from static to animated with minimal fuss.
All three artists display some hint into process, further allowing visitors into the mind of artistic vision. Buser loans a typewriter to the exhibit that viewers are encouraged to manipulate, along with a display of trial end error works that shed light on the editing process. Dolkas’ treasure trove of scraps will be displayed in arrangement and a few of Guardino’s chess pieces that are in process stand at attention as well.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Luke Buser lives and works in the Portland area. Luke has been making and showing work since 1999, his portfolio ranges from Dada style collage to conceptual and process based work. “I have been a fan of typewriter art and concrete poetry for many years and had thought about trying it. So, when the pandemic came along, being stuck inside and not really sure if it would be a good idea to spend money on art supplies, it seemed like a good time to give it a go. I already had a typewriter and paper is cheap enough. I love the idea of getting to know a medium and the different ways it can be manipulated. Finding different ways to form patterns and images using only the alphabet and various symbols can be slightly challenging, but the repetition and thought process is very meditative.”
Luke Dolkas has been an artist in the Pacific Northwest since 1996 and has exhibited art in many galleries and selected exhibitions. He studied art at UC Santa Barbara and received a Bachelors degree in art from Portland State University. He participated in exhibits in Italy where he also studied fresco painting and bookmaking. He was a cofounder of the 12x16 galley in Portland in 2005, as well as a member of the Hawthorne Arts Guild in the early 2000’s. Luke currently shows work from guest artists in the galleries in his two locations of Luke’s Frame Shop in Portland. Luke studied and practiced a vast amount of art media and techniques, including printmaking, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and assemblage, however paper and paint collage have dominated his interests since 1999. Luke is also currently dabbling in digital art exploring the world of NFTs.
Eaan Guardino lives and works in the Portland area. The world that these artworks are a part of is an expanding and continuous experiment in analogical thinking, art and design.The chess set itself began as a set of hand drawings and wooden prototypes cut in various sizes, loosely informed by the theoretical principles of non-linar warfare, the artist's ongoing geopolitical interests, and tacit reflections on ideology and religion. Colored in a varietal palette of reds and greens, referencing early Eastern chess sets made of emerald and ruby, these forms are taken and placed into a 3d world, and captured in their raw forms from various angles before being transferred to ink printing on paper.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Jamie Wilson is founder of AGENDA and has been actively collecting art since the 1980s. In 2000 she opened her first gallery, Square Blue, in a tiny upstairs off-street location in Newport Beach, CA. The hard-to-find location quickly became a hub for some of the most cutting edge and experimental art going on in Orange County. Many of those then unknown artists went on to major gallery representation and museum collections.Those early relationships have enabled the newest iteration of Wilson’s art endeavors to include some of the finest emerging and mid-career art available today. AGENDA’s main focus is educating collectors to become adept at spotting talent and engaging in the conversation that art exists within.