RESURRECTION INSURRECTION

GONORTH
a space for contemporary art

469 Main St., Beacon, NY 12508
gonorthgallery@hotmail.com
www.gonorthgallery.com
Contact: Joe Millar, Director, 845.242.1951

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Resurrection Insurrection”

or Son of Morpheus

July 12 – August 3, 2008
Reception: Saturday, July 12, 6 - 9 PM

GO NORTH is very pleased to present an exhibition of work by Michael X. Rose entitled “Resurrection Insurrection.” This is Rose’s first solo show with the gallery, and runs from July 12 to August 3, 2008. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, July 12, from 6 to 9 pm.

Michael X. Rose, self-professed painter of Doom, Horror, Chaos & Doubt, is the kind of foreword-thinking throwback whose work is destined to excite anyone interested in art that bridges the detail-attentive, mythological richness of Gothic Romanticism with the pop theatricality of outsider-inspired folk art. Rose’s work delights in the bizarre, mining historical documents, classical art, crime nonfiction, and tales of the fabulous without prejudice, in order to provide his apocalyptic signature to works that interweave complex themes while entertaining us with a late-night seventies Creature Feature sort of fun. As a whole, this solo show provides the unique visual experience of having a phantasmal history of the Hudson River Valley forced into synergy with such an unlikely occasion as the Egyptian gods Osiris and Anubis battling Killer Robots in what appears to be a space-time portal linking backwoods Appalachia to the Valley of the Gods. Here Lazarus is resurrected as the Mummy, a gold-leafed reliquary and various altarpieces depict the martyrdoms of a host of saints in ample grotesquerie, and truncated versions of famous battles, man vs man as well as man vs giant squid, are again re-imagined, occasionally with renegade bikers and zombie stand-ins, for our delight.

The work of Michael X. Rose also rewards viewers whose excavating tendencies dig deeper, as they are chock full of hidden gems. A seemingly insignificant darkened alleyway mural reveals an homage to Il Tintoretto’s “Christ before Pilate,” a biker’s tattoo exacts the mirror image of one donned by rocker Jimmy Hendrix, and the Sanskrit symbols writ above a door offer an unheeded warning. Though the Outsider Art effect is most prevalent, Rose’s grab-bag of influences range from the mythological musings of Nicolas Poussin and the Pre-Raphaelites to the symbolism of Gustave Moreau to the Gothic Romanticism of Caspar David Friedrich and Horace Walpole. High and Low seem paltry barometers for Rose’s work, with its sweeping imaginative gestures. Instead one might imagine Rose charting a new mythology as it rises from the cultural debris, one just as likely to evoke the son of Morpheus, god of dreams, as the son of Godzilla.

Directly descended from the last pirate publicly hung in Charleston, South Carolina, Michael X. Rose lives in Bruynswick, Ulster County, NY, where he maintains an art studio in a 17th century farmhouse with his wife, Kristina, and their three children.

Gallery hours: 12 - 6 PM Saturday and Sunday, and by appointment.