recent exhibition

Current Exhibition

Past Exhibitions:

Marshmallows

The George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles,

January 10- February 14th, 2009

While his previous paintings explored aerial views of freeways, airplanes

and trucks, this new series of oil paintings engages a more abstract and

ambiguous subject: marshmallows. Tumbling heaps of white marshmallows are simultaneously humorous, somewhat grotesque and somehow beautiful.

They are at once voluptuous and sweet, confining and claustrophobic;

they expertly explore the subtlety of amorphous form. Brooklyn based

artist Derek Buckner will exhibit his recent paintings from January 14-

February 14th at George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles. The George Billis

Gallery LA is located at 2716 South la Cienega Blvd. in the Culver City

gallery district and is open Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm.

The process of actually painting hundreds of marshmallows piled upon

one another is an obsessive act that has left its mark on these paintings.

The artist purchased bag upon bag of marshmallows for nearly a year,

scattered them throughout his studio, examined them from different angles under many different light sources, and though

there is certainly anxiety present in these mostly large-scale paintings, it is extraordinary beauty that prevails. This ability

to move fluidly between beauty, humor and anxiety is what distinguishes Derek Buckner as a painter; with each new series

his work continuesto compel.

Derek Buckner grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at Vassar College and received his B.F.A. from The School of

the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited in New York, Houston, Chicago, Italy, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe.

His work is in numerous private and corporate collections in this country and abroad. His previous show at the George Billis

Gallery in New York was reviewed favorably in the New Yorker, The New York Sun as well as other publications. He has

also been featured in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The George Billis Gallery marks its eleventh year

in the Chelsea art district and recently opened a second gallery in the burgeoning gallery district of Culver City in Los

Angeles. For more information please contact the Gallery via e-mail at gallery@georgebillis.com or visit their

GEORGE BILLIS GALLERY
2716 South La Cienega Blvd.

Culver city Ca 90034

310-838-3685

Exhibition Views