Opening – First Friday
Aug 4 2017
12:00 am
FOCUS AND COLOR
Aug 4 2017 - Aug 31 2017
Opening – First Friday
August 4, 2017
6 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Artist Reception – Third Friday
August 18, 2017
6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Focus and Color a two artist exhibit featuring the paintings of Bruno D’Anna and W. Max Thomason. Two artists working in very different styles yet still seeming to have a very similar purpose in pushing the focus and color of a canvas as far as they can.
Bruno D’Anna, working with a palette knife, expresses the cityscapes and landscapes he paints in bright, vivid colors. Making bold choices in perspective, light and focus, Bruno makes even the nighttime street scenes he paints seem airy and inviting. Every canvas tells a distinct story and has a life entirely its own. The rich flashes of color Bruno uses make the viewer feel warm and welcomed into the vast expanse of the story he is trying to tell with every canvas.
W. Max Thomason twists focus into pushing the female form out of focus in each piece. Moving it closer and closer to the unrecognizable yet somehow never crossing the threshold of completely abstracting the form. Max uses color to push the story of each painting even further. Trying to tap into a palette that attempts to pull the strongest emotions to the surface for the viewer.
D’Anna – Born 1951 in Naples, Italy, Bruno has shown an exceptional inclination for art since childhood. As a teenager, Bruno enrolled in the Artistic Lyceum of Naples, a vocational school in which he had the opportunity to learn from some of Italy’s most respected artists, including Armando De Stefano. While in school, Bruno learned numerous painting techniques and the importance of art’s influence on people’s lives. He participated in numerous art exhibitions and galleries throughout the country, and earned his Master of Arts degree in 1971. Afterward, Bruno enrolled at the Naples Academia delle Belle Arti with an emphasis on Scenography. After enhancing his artistic creativity and gaining full control of various techniques at the prestigious Academy, Bruno dedicated himself fully to painting. A remarkably expressive, figurative, vocational scenographer and painter at heart, Bruno merges various techniques to encompass his own emotions, the exaltation of nature, and the purity of poetry.
Thomason – is a Denver based artist that works in the natural-realism, abstract and sometimes pop genres. Max studied at Community College of Denver/Metropolitan State University/University of Colorado Denver from 1990-1997 under Amy Métier. The greatest influence on his early painting years were the Fauvists of the early 1900’s and the realists of the 1960’s and 70’s.
He’s participated in multiple group and solo exhibits to date in Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, New York and Austria.
His artwork has been used for the album cover Fridays and Other Small Tragedies by Carolyn’s Mother, released in 1995. His artwork will also be used for the upcoming single “Boys Like Me” and two albums “Recovered” & “Recovering” by Mike River, to be release in late 2017.
