Blue Sky

Steve Ellis Old Time Crack, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 16″ x 16″
Jonny Fenix, Pillow, Acrylic and Ink on Board, 20″ x 14″

A) Jonny Fenix
A Note To Ray Thurston ( A Slave Owner)
acrylic , and Ink on board
24” x 24”

B) Steve Ellis
Danger: Terrorist Weapon
Oil and acrylic on Canvas
11” x 8”

Steve Ellis
Chucks Eat The Rich
Oil on Canvas
9” x 12”

Jonny Fenix
Relax, Everything is Made in China
acrylic and Ink on Cardboard
31″ x 27″

Steve Ellis
Hamburger Hummer Boxing Gloves
Oil on Found Object
Life Size

Jonny Fenix
WOW! (no thanks)
acrylic , and Ink on board
38” x 23”

CKFA proudly announces our latest exhibition, Blue sky (if you close your eye) featuring the works of leading artists Jonny Fenix and Steve Ellis. Well aware of America’s happy unaware state, Steve Ellis and Jonny Fenix come back to Capla Kesting Fine Art with seductive wit and wisdom to turn our heads. Putting their considerable talents of painting, screen printing, mixed media collage, and some intensely impressive puns to good use, Blue sky (if you close your eye) redirects our focus away from the sunshine and booze brunches of springtime and back to the consequential acts of consumerism, violence and political ignorance that overwhelms this American life.

Jonny Fenix, a Los Angeles renegade, uses his street art attitude to infiltrate the high art world. Utilizing politically charged raw materials such as motor oil and blood to construct screen prints and collages, Fenix’s artwork invites cultural critique with cheeky humor and charm. His painting serve thy country reads like a prideful plaque at Grandma’s house until close inspection reveals the pyramid of skulls in its background. Forever Six: jonbenet ramsay echoes iconic Warhol screen prints, but the smeared makeup on her face leaves a creeping reminder of gloom, not glamour. Touching on the Iraq war, child labor, conspicuous consumerism, poverty, and all forms of exploitation, Jonny Fenix will make you laugh and then cringe.

A broken high heel shoe or empty lighter are forgotten moments after they fail us, but New Yorker Steve Ellis’ photo-realistic paintings encourage us to remember them and to reconsider their purpose. Steve Ellis regularly and almost exclusively paints what western consumer culture encourages us to overlook: not only eulogized garbage, but moments of American consumerist splendor gone wrong— shining remnants of car crashes, the implied violence of a “stainless” immaculate butterfly knife. In these works, Ellis gives us beautiful design, but leaves a stirring question — the vague, uneasy feeling that broken shoes, cars and dreams never go away when we ask them to.

Blue Sky (if you close your eye) is showing you what’s what at Capla Kesting Fine Art from June 1 – 18, 2007 with an opening night reception for the artists on Friday, June 1, from 7:00 until 10:00 pm. We hope you will be able to attend. Capla Kesting Fine Art is located at 121 Roebling St., Brooklyn, NY. Gallery hours are 12:00 – 6:00 pm Tuesday through Sunday. The gallery can be reached at www.caplakesting.com tel: 917-650-3760 or 917-292-8865.

Founded in October of 2003 by David Kesting and Lincoln Capla, Capla Kesting Fine Art has become synonymous with the exposure of underground artists. Created primarily as a venue to expose their work, and that of their talented group of friends CKFA has developed a reputation for their off the beaten path approach to advancing the public’s knowledge of premier talents that demand our attention.

“We’re not here making a statement. We’re just showing art we think deserves to be shown. The goal and whole idea of the place is to help bring artists that we respect and enjoy to the attention of the public.”

Forward by Emily Gallagher