New Works by Sean Foley and Yeshe Parks

Sean Foley, Totem, Mixed Media on paper

Yeshe Parks, Untitled, Oil paint and Collage on paper

This August at Whitney Art Works there will be an explosion of color with whimsical new works by Sean Foley and Yeshe Parks.

Through painting, drawing, and collage the show is a microscopic and macroscopic investigation of the inexplicable, unpredictable, and chaotic nature of things. The work consists of abstract and figurative forms that generate action packed and alluring motion. Combining visual components from cartoons, animation and elements from our everyday lives, this work re-contextualizes the way we view relationships between these disparate elements.

In Foley’s own words, “I view my paintings as monsters; messy, captivating, silly, but irrevocably prodigious creations unconcerned with being anything in particular.” With his carnivalesque figurative abstraction Sean Foley playfully creates a sense of wonder and invention. Without a static moment in his large-scale paintings, Sean creates a vortex of action through line, color, rhythms and gestures. The paintings are executed in the spirit of doodling, allowing the form to evolve into colorful awkward grotesqueries for their own sake.

A graduate from the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Sean Foley earned an MFA from The Ohio State University. He has had numerous solo exhibition, including Phantasmagoria at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport and has been part of many group exhibitions, including the Biennial Exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art where he won the Juror's Award in 2003. Formally the head of the painting department at Maine College of Art, Sean currently teaches at Ohio State University.

Yeshe Parks’ collages investigate our existence in comparison to the greater whole. From the infinitely small to the inconceivably large, Parks inspects social and cultural fabrics, a relationship between scale, metaphorical object, and himself. His work is informed by a childhood world-view in which "dumpsters were skyscrapers and skyscrapers were speed bumps for satellites. I was adept at shifting perspectives, from the miniature to the large. It helped strengthen a deep appreciation for my surroundings on all levels.”

Yeshe Parks is a recent graduate of the University of Maine. His work has been featured in the Portland Museum of Art Biennial Exhibition and at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. This is his first exhibition with Whitney Art Works.

New Works by Sean Foley and Yeshe Parks will be on view from August 1st to August 30th. A reception for the artists will be held on August 1st from 5pm - 8pm during the First Friday Art Walk. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 12-6pm or by appointment.

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