Raj Bunnag is a Thai American artist living and working in Durham, North Carolina. He received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012 with an emphasis in Printmaking, and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2022. Bunnag’s practice examines systematic racism inherent to the foundations of the United States, its institutions and domestic/global policies, through themes in the lineage of print. In his more personal work, he is researching the ideas and baggage that come with self-identity as the son of immigrants and what it means to be a non-white body existing in white spaces. He has shown work nationally and internationally as well as received numerous awards for his relief printed work.
Bunnag uses references from pop culture, news headlines, government policy and legislation, and historical research to take a searing look at the failures of the War on Drugs. Various illegal substances and major participants of the War on Drugs are represented as fantastical monsters in a style reminiscent of master printers such as Jacques Collet, Francisco de Goya, and others.
Whether it is teaching printmaking and drawing to Duke students or teaching local high schoolers, Raj finds his inspiration in spreading the gospel of print and educating people on how the printed world is still powerful in a digitally dominated society.
Tom Meyer has been referred to as an ‘outsider’ artist.
He is indeed a self-taught painter. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas or board, Meyer’s paintings originate from impulses within his soul. He has referred to this collection, his first to be exhibited, as ‘narrative visions’.
His cast of characters that inhabit his paintings give an account of his inner life and his imagination. They tell a story with his themes, “of redemption, forgiveness, acceptance, rejection and love,” as he has described it.
Meyer has said, “I don’t paint things, I paint ideas.” His work is informed and inspired by a variety of ideas, from current events to ancient philosophy. Through an outsider or visionary artist, Meyer’s work is part of a creative tradition with roots that include early American folk art and that has continued to evolve in numerous and dynamic ways up to today. Meyer has created a personal universe with his paintings, as many outsider artists have done. This exhibition is a dazzling display of that universe.
Chris Murray
Considered to be one of the most prominent Washington D.C. artists of the last century, Green led art in the city away from the prevalent trend of painters in the Washington Color School while working for 35 years as an instructor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. He encouraged his students to look inward towards a personal vocabulary of form, a commandment he personified. One of his most defining characteristics to those who knew him was his ever-present black sketchbook in which he would constantly draw, reacting to the world around him.
Loren Salazar was born in California in 1951. Graduated with Honors in 1973 from Central Washington State University with a degree in Fine Arts and Sciences. Salazar has painted and exhibited extensively in the western states of Washington, California, and Alaska. His work has been exhibited across the country and his published images are found internationally. Currently calling Cost Rica home, Salazar continues to paint image locations from Italy to South America.
Salazar’s photorealistic technique developed into a long series of works based on visual memory. This involved numerous images and places occupying the same picture plane. These images dissolved in and out of one another in long horizontal compositions.
With the encouragement of close friend and mentor Andreas Nottebohm, Salazar set fourth on a 4 year series of works on etched aluminum, a technique pioneered by San Francisco artist Nottebohm. While living near Lake Arenal in Costa Rica, Salazar’s nights were consumed creating a series of paintings based on “The “Northern Lights” or “Aurora Borealis”. This series was painted in layers of transparent acrylic on etched aluminum. From Arenal, Salazar shipped the Northern Light Series to galleries in Alaska, Washington, and California.
The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question.