Color & Form

Kevin Cole & Jeffrey Paclipan

On View: January 26 - March 7

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 26, 6-9 pm

HATHAWAY is proud to present Color & Form, a two-person exhibition of new works by Kevin Cole and Jeffrey Paclipan. Cole and Paclipan create two and three-dimensional works, exploding with experimentation in color and form, to address narratives of identity. Through a process of abstraction and coding, Cole looks at African American identity from a societal and historical lense, ultimately transcending to encompass all who have suffered and prevailed despite their circumstances. Paclipan focuses on personal identity, transforming discarded materials as a metaphor for overturning marginalization.

Kevin Cole received his B.S. from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, an M.A. in art education from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and an M.F.A. from Northern Illinois University. Within the last 32 years, he has received 27 grants and fellowships, 75 awards in art, 51 teaching awards. and over 35 public art commissions.

His artwork has been featured in more than 475 exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Cole’s artwork is included in more than 3600 public, private and corporate collections throughout the United States. Public collections include the new National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, The Brooks Museum, Memphis TN, The Georgia Museum, Athens, GA, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.; William Jefferson Clinton Library, Little Rock, Ark.; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AK.; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; The David C Driskell Center University of Maryland at College Park; Dayton Institute of Art, Dayton, OH; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Georgia Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA.; Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC and the Tampa Museum in Tampa, FL. Corporate collections include Bank of America, Charlotte, NC; IBM, NY, and King & Spalding Law Firm, Atlanta, GA. Private collectors include Michael Jordan, formerly of the Chicago Bulls; Dallas Austin, Film & Records Producer; Brad Sellers, formerly of the Chicago Bulls, Darrell Walker, former NBA player, and head coach, and Elliott Perry former NBA player. Cole has also created more than 45 public artworks, including the Coca-Cola Centennial Olympic Mural for the 1996 Olympic Games. Cole has most recently completed a large scale installation for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, GA. He will also be included in the upcoming Atlanta Biennial.

In Toure’s book, “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?,” he defines the term “post-blackness” as a way for African American artists to be identified such that their work can be seen beyond the sociological/stereotypical definition of “Black Art.” Early in this book, he talks about the freedom that New Blacks have to be themselves without feeling as though they are tethered to a past that they do not agree with or one that they feel they are not a product of. Truth in my work is a colorful reminder of promises still unkept, imperialism still institutionalized, and stealth deceit that has stolen the dreams and birthrights of twenty generations of a once proud people. It stands in contrast to the canon just as Norman Lewis’ work stood in contrast to those who framed early abstract expressionism.

When I turned eighteen years old, my grandfather told me about a tree on his property where African American men had been lynched by their neckties on their way to vote. The experience left a profound impression. I am personally tethered to this inescapable memory. Thus, my work is rooted in a place of targeted tragedy. Its curvilinear twists, knots, and loops are fed by the energy found in the souls of ALL those who toil and triumph every day against the odds and against the unheralded tragedies of life. My work is a universal story with both hero and villain, good and evil. The narrative is embedded like HTML code. It is not visible to the eye, but it can be decoded...

Jeffrey Paclipan was born in Balibago, the Philippines in 1967. Raised into a military family, he has relocated in a variety of states including California, Missouri, Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska, and Florida. He currently resides in College Park, GA. Although Paclipan was offered a Douglas Wyoming Kurtz Andrew Scholarship and Sheridan Wyoming College Scholarship in 1985, he decided to move to Alaska with his family from 1985-1987. He attended the International Fine Arts College, Miami, FL, from 1987-89 where he received an AA Degree in Commercial Art. From 1990-96, he worked in the Miami Beach area as a mural artist. As a self-taught artist, Paclipan has predominantly worked with nontraditional materials since 1990. Paclipan has participated in juried exhibitions, gallery exhibitions, and fairs in Florida, New York, South Carolina and Georgia. His solo and group exhibitions include the Chastain Arts Center, Mammal Gallery, TEW Galleries, The Atlanta Financial Center, and Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA; Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NY and the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Paclipan is currently represented by Hathaway Contemporary Gallery.

I am compelled to create objects with nontraditional materials and transform them to a greater meaning. This process of creating a dialogue with mixed media has been evolving for over three decades. Incorporating mixed media on canvas, wood, and toys; transforming the materials into a textural and dimensional world. Marginalized materials found or discarded, whether with beads, confetti or puzzles, are combined together in layers to create visual stimuli. As a self-taught artist, my works vacillate between highbrow and lowbrow art. Relying less on refined results but more towards a natural and perfectly imperfect way of expression. Relating to how we are all in society are coming from different perspectives and all works in progress. It is not necessarily about viewing something for the sake of beauty but to create a visual emotional connection and response from within.

The puzzle relief paintings are experiences of undulations and movement. When one views the works, wave-like surfaces ebb and flow with the energy of swirling pieces. Made from puzzle pieces swirled and massed into forms, the works are more sculptural then paintings. Breaking out of the two-dimensional surface they appear to be alive, like topographic models of mountains beings formed and reformed or as eternally restless bodies of water. These relieflike sculptural pieces are on a level, a metaphor for the experience of overturning marginalization. Using puzzle pieces, which are usually made to fit in a confined order, he flips the concept of the jigsaw puzzle from an association with logic and order to express intuitive, chaotic energy and exuberant freedom.

(Left) Kevin Cole, Uptown Funk I, 2017, collage, 42 x 35  inches
(Right) Jeffrey Paclipan, Riff on Reef,  2018, puzzles and metallic latex paint on mixed media, 74 x 33 inches