WILSON, N.C. — September 25, 2024 — Barton Art Galleries is excited to announce the opening of David Molesky’s exhibition “Figural Transitions: Masculinity from Realism to Allegory” on October 21, with a reception planned for Thursday, Oct. 24, from 5-7 p.m. The gallery talk will begin at 6 p.m. The reception and the exhibition will be open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend. The exhibition will be open from Oct. 21 – Nov. 22.
Molesky will be Barton College’s fall artist-in-residence, working with art students during the period of October 21 – November 2. He also will offer community workshops on two Saturdays, October 26, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. and November 2, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. The painting workshops will be open to the public. The workshop cost for FOVA (Friends of Visual Arts) members is $15.00 and for nonmembers, $25.00. For more information and/or to register for the workshops, please contact Maureen O’Neill, director of exhibitions and educational programming at the Barton Art Galleries, at moneill@barton.edu or 252-399-6476.
“Many of my earliest paintings were self portraits,” notes Molesky. “I looked at my own figure, gesture, and body language for evidence of my thoughts and feelings. When I discovered that connection, I expressed it through color and paint gestures.
“For the last couple decades, I have created narrative works inspired by dreams, memories, and direct observation,” he continues. “I start with my personal experience and strive for compositions that are universal. As the zeitgeist of figurative art has fixated on identities, I’ve found that representations of gender, race, and body type can be distracting.”
Molesky shares that in 2014, he was struck by the idea to paint a banana as a stand-in for a human figure. “A decade later, it’s the focus of my work, he further explains. “Bananas are seemingly robust yet prone to bruising, just like men. Because of these aspects as well as the color and the shape of a banana, they are an apt symbol to explore ideas around masculinity.”
About the artist —
David Molesky, born in Washington, D.C., is a figurative oil painter who explores narratives and sublime forces that inspire awe. He is interested in the psychology behind the creative process, as well as what he describes as “the magic of paint—how a goopy amorphous substance can be transformed into illusionistic images capable of arousing empathy and contemplation.”
Molesky’s paintings have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe and are included in several permanent collections, including the Long Beach Museum of Art and the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art, Philippines. He is the recipient of artist residencies awarded by the Morris Graves Foundation, California; the Fundacja Nakielska, Poland; and the Akureyri Art Museum, Iceland. His work has also been featured in “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post,” “New American Painting,” “American Arts Quarterly,” “ Juxtapoz,” and “Hi-Fructose.”
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