by Darby Parsons
"Iamdog: the collected works of Gewel Kafka" is on display at the Daily Planet in Burlington until September 1st. Gewel’s spirited and vibrant paintings range from abstractions, realist sunsets and portraits such as Manifestation (pictured), and personalized surrealism such as The Ways in Which a Woman Will Dissasociate (pictured below). A few words from the artist:
What’s your primary drive as an artist?
Painting is an intimate, intuitive process that enables my meditation, prayer and helps me to cope with reality. It actually is a meditation in itself, and it’s a way of sharing that with people.
Where does your personal imagery come from?
Some of the stuff is inspired by my art history studies. The Virgin and Her Pussy was a self portrait of me and my cat. I put my face in a Byzantium time piece, some virgin and jesus painting from the iconoclast era. Most of my paintings come from manically searching for images; stuff from art history, magazines, photos. I spread them out and do sketches of images I find appealing, I’ll steal different pieces from different images.
This is one of Gewel’s first exhibitions in Burlington with several more in the works. A closing reception will be held for iamdog: the collected works at the Daily Planet on August 29, 3-4pm.
