Abstracting and modernizing the original bad boys of the Italian Renaissance - Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo - is a peculiar concept. Bruce Bitmead's "Re-imagined" paintings are impressive, so much so even the Ninja Turtles would shell out their approval with just one word: "Awesome."
Bruce Bitmead's "Renaissance Re-Imagined," and Ellen Markel's "CYRK," are on display at the Kepa3 art gallery, located at 31 Barker St. just off Main Street in Buffalo. The exhibition opened March 31 and is running through April 28.
Markel's installation "CYRK" (Polish for circus) is an arrangement of sculptures assembled by both rare and ordinary household objects reshaped to fit a circus theme. From light bulbs found in refrigerators to antique door handles, Markel crafts a delightful exhibition. "Test Your Strength With Sweeper" is a piece that resembles that of the carnival game but she substitutes the hammer with a makeshift broom.
Bitmead's exhibit is inspired by the work of the Italian Renaissance. Bitmead takes several pieces from artists such as Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael Sanzio, and regenerates a few of their most famous works by reconstructing them in an abstract world in magnificent fashion.
Portraits "Michelangelo" and "Rembrandt," attract attention with their gripping texture. These small portraits are placed amid larger scale works on surrounding walls.
The evolution of Bitmead's work is apparent in the later works of the series according to Kepa3 curator Peter Fowler.
"When I first met Bruce he was more of a figurative expressionist oil painter, which is noticeable in the portraits, but he began to evolve and move into more abstract painting," Fowler said. "He uses the same brush strokes, same technique with the pain, but on a more abstract scale that creates this emotional quality present in his work."
This abstract application is evident in "Passage," in which Bitmead piles layers of paint to create an intriguing texture. Each brush stroke drives this piece with its variant greens and browns that create an almost swamp-like appearance.
One of the strongest paintings on display is "Baptism," an abstraction of Leonardo da Vinci's "John The Baptist." In the original piece, Leonardo has John the Baptist sitting in shadows cast by trees with a more lighter, and brighter backdrop. In Bitmead's abstract working he composites a piece with high contrast to emulate Leonardo's piece.
There is a perceptible difference from the smaller abstraction pieces to the amplified works. In these paintings, Bitmead's warped vision is reminiscent of the works of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
"He painted the series over the same period of time," Fowler said, "but in the middle he just switched the style, going even more abstract."
In "One Day's Work" and "Inside Out" Bitmead begins to focus strictly on color, and rectangular shapes, as he begins to delve deeper with his interpretation of the Renaissance works.
"He began to concentrate more on his color pallet, and focusing more on color fields. He pretty much boiled it all down into just shapes, and the movement of those shapes," Fowler said.
Bitmead's "Renaissance Re-Imagined," is exquisitely original. Through texture, colors, and shapes, he reworks the vintage paintings of the notable Italian Renaissance masters, changing our perceptions of them through his distorted lens.
Photo: Courtesy of Mitchell Kish
