John Bailly
JOHN BAILLY: THE CITY
{{gallery}}Bailly considers both the large contemporary metropolis and cities of the past with meticulous imagery, historical references and visual elements from maps, streets and buildings to reframe our idea of the city. Referencing Troy, Mexico City, Rome, and Paris Bailly shows new ways to see the metropolis when its physical, commercial, and cultural frontiers no longer have easily identifiable boundaries. Bailly’s work often incorporates multiple views of a single city to reflect the multiple voices and perceptions through the city’s history. His paintings invite us to make connections through the historical references the artist incorporates and project them to our own realm.
He uses the newly unearthed archaeology of the Tequesta Indian Settlement on the Miami River to link Miami to its roots and ground our idea of who we have become.[/vc_column_text]
Spirit of Place Press Release
Spirit of Place
Miami Master Darby Bannard with John Bailly, Jacqueline Gopie, and Kathleen Staples
MIAMI – We are pleased to premier the exhibition Spirit of Place during Art Basel 2014. The collection brings together renowned Darby Bannard and three outstanding mid-career Miami artists who have long admired his example while evolving their own distinct, highly individual styles that reflect the nature of their environment.
When Darby Bannard moved to Florida 25 years ago he was struck by the endless flat vistas of the Everglades and the lowering sun and flamboyant clouds of the evening sky. These impressions were incorporated into his paintings of the time and also manifested in
small mixed-media landscapes named after Florida towns. Many of these landscape and atmospheric influences persist to this day.
In his semi-abstract paintings and mixed-media works, John Bailly combines gestural brushstrokes with images of human figures, maps, and urban images, capturing the essence of a place while imaginatively juxtaposing fragments of depicted forms as if they are both emerging from and sinking into their surroundings.
Jacqueline Gopie paints large canvases with quick, spontaneous strokes and swirls of bright, often transparent color that evoke moments of delight experienced by children playing in the beaches and surf of her native Jamaica. The pictures take you there with a powerful immediacy that belies their free-wheeling informality.
A pioneer in the innovative use of the new acrylic mediums, Kathleen Staples creates dramatic effects which are quirky, lively, startling and full of humor. Implied references to turbulent natural processes like flowing lava, wind-whipped ocean or desiccated earth are tamed by starkly simple geometric forms in eccentric colors, sometimes built out in relief with brightly colored gel or gritty modeling paste.
Art Basel Hours
Tuesday – Friday 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Noon to 5:00 p.m.
John Bailly : The City
Large Scale Paintings Recast Miami’s Metamorphosis
Opening Reception April 30, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Exhibition continues through June 14, 2014
We are pleased to present John Bailly: The City an exhibition of large scale paintings that show how urban structure and cultural identities intertwine to form the unique spirit of the city.
Bailly considers both the large contemporary metropolis and cities of the past with meticulous imagery that incorporates visual ideas from maps, streets and buildings. The paintings in the exhibition represent seven such cities including Troy, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Miami and Paris. They invite us to make connections through the historical references the artist incorporates and project them to our own realm.
Bailly’s take on Miami’s place in the globalized world refreshes the genre of landscape painting. His work questions what it means to have an urban identity when a city’s physical, commercial, and cultural frontiers no longer have easily identifiable boundaries. He reminds us through the recent discovery of the Tequesta Indian Settlement on the Miami River of the many layers of the past our cities are built on. Bailly uses this newly unearthed archaeology to link Miami to its roots and ground our idea of who we have become as Miami has emerged during the last decade as a major center of international culture, commerce and tourism.
The paintings in the exhibition include fourteen large-scale works ranging in size from seven to thirteen feet wide, as well smaller works on paper. Bailly’s work often incorporates multiple views of a single city to reflect the multiple voices and perceptions through the city’s history. The artist’s process involves creating obsessively accurate renderings of maps, devising mathematical formulas, and applying spontaneous swaths of paint.
This recent series of paintings grew from his collaboration with Presidential Inauguration Poet, Richard Blanco. The project, titled “Place of Mind”, launched the artist’s exploration of the city as a place of mixed cultural identity. Both Blanco and Bailly share similar backgrounds being brought up speaking two languages, and having lived in different continents and cultures.
John Bailly was born in Slough, UK of a French father and an American mother, and has lived in Paris, Lyon, Long Island and Miami. He attended Miami Dade College and Florida International University as an undergraduate and received his MFA from Yale University. He is currently a professor and Fellow of the FIU Honors College. Bailly is recipient of a South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists and a State of Florida Individual Artist Grant. His work has been exhibited throughout the US including the University of Maine Museum of Art, ClampArt in New York City, Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art; and in France, at the Brindas Clos des Arts.
Opening Reception with the Artist April 30, 2014 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Reservations Requested (No charge) – RSVP to events@visual.org or 305-571-1415
Exhibition continues through June 14, 2014
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Friday 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays Noon to 5:00 p.m.
541 NW 27th Street · Miami, Florida 33127 · Phone 305-571-1415 · www.visual.org