Painted Love

Artist: George Towne

July 10 - 27, 2013
Reception: July 10, 6 - 8pm

"And you think love is to pray, but I'm sorry I don't pray that way" – Marc Almond/Soft Cell

The song also refers to ways of praying. For Towne, Painting has allowed him to develop spirituality around his art making process; he lights a candle that slowly burns as he works, and laying out his palette of color has become a devotional act for him, much like traditional prayer and meditation. The love of his process is carried through into his subject matter in Towne's summer show at Michael Mut Project Space.

A portrait of one of the artist's former boyfriends holding a coffee mug sports the words, "I love you". Towne also continues to explore both Portraiture and Landscape, with two works combining both subjects in stark detail. A man sitting on an urban park bench allows his highly rendered plaid shirt to fall open. Another image depicts a full figure portrait of a man wearing only bright red running shorts leaning against an old tree, providing the viewer with a sexual charge. Other images, which seem at first glance to only be Landscapes, are enhanced with the knowledge that they depict areas of Fire Island's notorious cruising ground, The Meatrack.

George Towne has had Solo shows at The Barbara Ann Levy Gallery in Fire Island, NY, and at The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance in Narrowsburg, NY. He has been in numerous group shows; recent venues have included the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art, the Forbes Galleries in New York, and Kymara Gallery in Maine. His work has been written about in publications such as American Artist, A&U: Art & Understanding Magazine, Time Out New York, and Next Magazine. Art of Man, a Quarterly publication, featured him in its Winter 2012 Issue (#11).