Denise Bibro Fine Art in Chelsea is pleased to announce Brooklyn artist Thurston Belmer’s first solo exhibition, THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS. The show will run May 16 – June 15, 2019.
Belmer provokes the viewer to be introspective… personal. His paintings deal with loss, alienation, and the absurd.
Thurston’s work explores the journey of self-introspection, and the inability to find universal meaning. His work is mysterious and ominous. His deftly rendered interiors and figures are crisp in line, and volumetric in shape and form. His compositions are rich in colors of burnt umbers, greys, and deep reds that accentuating their resolve and baroque-like sensibilities. Belmer’s organization of space is the provocateur of the narrative of his paintings.
He articulates that he’s not particularly religious and inspired by classic literature particularly the novel Moby Dick. As he states his work “…carries the aesthetic weight of art historical movements that were most notably the baroque…. His attraction to this baroque aesthetic is in its inherent severity and moral solidity that he can contrast with the world that is only solid in appearance…” while his aesthetic is inspired by Moby Dick, his organization of space is more the aesthetic architecture of Camus.
He provokes the viewer to explore the mysteries of life and circumstance personally. “…He rethinks human inadequacies that build boundaries in the first place and that lonely existential, personal place that allows fear to push individuals to dominate, subjugate and control…” Belmer’s paintings are his “…conduit, through which our human experience grows…”
His work has been exhibited nationally including Salomon Art Gallery, New York, NY; Murray State University – Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Murray, KY; Danforth Museum of Art, Farmington, MA; Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; Seton Gallery – University of New Haven, IL; Institute of Art Chicago, IL; Shore Institute of Contemporary Art, Ashbury Park, NJ; and the Hinge Gallery in Saint Louis, MO among many others. His work has been published in Hyperallergic, Direct Art Magazine, Artefuse, Beautiful Savage Magazine, Artribune, Hesa Imprint Magazine – Helsinki Finland, and Flavorpill. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Washington University, Saint Louis, MO and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Lyme Academy College of Fine Art in Old Lyme, CT.
