KEVIN O'HARA: COLOSSUS

Marvin Gardens and Best Western are excited to announce “Colossus” a solo exhibition by Kevin O’Hara. This is the artist’s first show with the gallery. Intimately sized oil paintings on prepared paper, framed without glazing, all share the same subject matter: driving at night. The viewpoint is that of being on the open road whether highway, urban, or rural. The illusion of realism is dominant at first glance until inspected closely. Then one realizes that markmaking and abstraction are the drivers into a world of pure paint. Engaging traditional oil painting techniques and focusing on light, O’Hara presents more contemporary questions of what we are looking at. With the show title “Colossus” we are called to wonder at this uncanny world carved by the automobile, as webs of highways span like veins all across the United States. These veins move people and commodities across the body of the earth, but at a great unconsidered cost to that environmental body. Thus, through the viewpoint of the intimate window, the artist has opened a door to some of the pressing questions of our time.