Wyoming artist Mark Paxton’s work will be featured at Greeley’s Tointon Gallery of Fine Art from November 15 to December 13. The exhibit title is “Recognizable and Strangely Familiar,” and an artist’s reception will be held on November 15 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Paxton’s work focuses on detailed and lifelike styles from the Renaissance, which the Dutch further advanced in the 1600s and 1700s. “Tronies” (a 16th-17th century Dutch word for “face”) are a specific type of this kind of painting and refer to faces, heads, and expressions. These paintings not only reflect the world around us but also provide the viewer with a glimpse of what is both recognizable and strangely familiar. They are paintings of faces expressing emotions — of anxiety and uncertainty, pride and laughter. Ordinary people have existed in all periods of time as the most substantial part of the human condition, and Paxton’s work represents humanity in brushstrokes.
“Art is about storytelling,” Paxton says. “For me, it’s humanity in a paintbrush, childhood and old age, the past and the present. It is our expressions and impressions, the conscious and unconscious, reality and imagination. In short, it’s everything and nothing. It’s the dialogue of mankind.”
The gallery, located at 651 10th Avenue in the Union Colony Civic Center and Greeley Recreation Center complex, is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.