This weekend marks the end of Fabien Castanier Gallery’s exhibition of the Miaz Brothers and the Masters. This is the first exhibition in the United States for the artists and as the show comes to a close we would like to share a bit more about their incredible new series of portraits.
The Miaz Brothers have set a new precedent for portraiture. The siblings work in tandem to conceptualize and create large-format pieces on canvas using aerosol paint. The "Antimatter Series", as their body of work is known, has incorporated diverse range of subjects, and for this exhibition they focused on figures from the Renaissance – the “Masters.” The Brothers play with the ideas of temporality and transcendence. Their paintings consist of large haunting images, primarily portraits, of evanescent figures that are scarcely there. These works are based on the “Old Masters” however the viewer is given little other context. The artists give you the materials to complete the narrative. With this little context they are also playing with the ideas of perception and how perception differs so drastically from person to person. Each viewer sees exactly what they want to in their portraits, whether its an old friend or a historical figure, everyone has associations that are in turn projected onto a blurred canvas.
In addition to interests of perception, the duo are concerned with the ephemerality of life and art and thus they playfully toe the lines between figurative and abstract works. “Ethereal” is a term used often in reference to their works, something there yet not quite there but none-the-less evocative. The idea that everything in our world is made up of constantly moving parts or "particles" is a constant theme throughout the “Antimatter Series”, from the techniques of aerosol spray paint to the liquid suspended “Holy Spirit” sculpture, the ideas of making something static is uninteresting to the brothers, they like the ever-changing, movement of our existence and have tried to present this through various mediums. The Miaz Brothers have explored and altered the ideas of classical portraiture.
The show has now been extended and is on display at Fabien Castanier Gallery through October 18, 2014.