April 5 - 28, 2012

THE LAURA RUSSO GALLERY IS PLEASED TO PRESENT:

Michael Brophy : Night Portrait

Michihiro Kosuge : Memory - Recent Paintings

OPENING RECEPTION:
First Thursday April 5, 2012
First Thursday Hours, 5-8pm


Michael Brophy


Michael Brophy
Ladder    2011
oil on canvas
90" x 113"

Night Portrait, a series of large and medium scale oil paintings, in combination with a selection of gouaches on paper, shows Michael Brophy continuing to expand his stylistic vocabulary and subject matter. Particularly well known for familiar scenes of the Pacific Northwest, with this show Brophy merges his interest in contemporary human experience and landscape with a graphic sense inspired by Old Master painters such as Piero della Francesca and Giotto. Specifically, he paints portraits of the night. Scenes of earth and sky are dark, still, and iconic.

Northwest artist Michael Brophy graduated in 1985 from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, where he has also taught. He has shown extensively in the Northwest in both solo and group exhibitions. His work is in collections including Microsoft, the Multnomah County Library Collection, the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, OSU Library in Corvallis, and the City of Portland, OR. Public commissions include Portland’s City Hall, the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in Wasco, OR, and most recently Mt. Rainier High School in Des Moines, WA.

More examples by Michael Brophy


Michihiro Kosuge



Michihiro Kosuge
Stack, Tree, and Rock    2011
acrylic on wood panel
32 " x 48"

Michihiro Kosuge presents Memory, a recent body of paintings on panel. Painting has long been a practice that Kosuge pursues in tandem with the stone sculpture for which he is best known. During the cold winter months, when working outdoors with stone is more difficult, Kosuge spends time indoors with paint and brush utilizing rich color and his interest in shape and spatial relationships to juxtapose forms in two-dimensional space. This series includes images that suggest familiar organic forms, presented in pared down, sometimes surreal ways. The work also implies growth or transformation, echoing themes of life’s changes, which informed the memories of the show’s title.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Michihiro Kosuge first studied architecture at the Tokyo Sumida Technical School of Architecture and then went on to receive his MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970. He began teaching art at Portland State University in 1978, becoming a full professor in 1989, and after serving three years as the Chair of the Art Department, retired in 2003. Exhibitions of his work include the Oakland Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum. Major commissions include a 5-piece commission for the Portland TriMet Transit Mall. Highline Community College, Des Moines, WA; the River Point Education Center, Spokane, WA; Kaiser Permanente Foundation, Vancouver, WA; the Little Tokyo Mall, Los Angeles, CA; Portland Community College, Sylvania Campus, OR; and the Washington County Justice Center, Hillsboro, OR.

More examples by Michihiro Kosuge