NYC-based Clark Goolsby has a big-ass spread in our January 2013 issue (that was fun to write). Just in time, Goolsby will have a few new pieces in a group show at Mirus Gallery in San Francisco, that opens Saturday, December 15. The second show at Mirus, Escape Velocity will feature works that are surreal, abstract, philosophical, but also feature figurative, familiar shapes and personas.

Influenced by Bernini's 'The Ecstasy of St. Teresa' and the psycho-sexual contradictions inherent to the pursuit of spiritual transcendance, James Roper brings us his 'Rapture' series. 'This is explicitly symbolised in the Rapture series by the use of porn stars as the vehicle for the expression of this 'spiritual' emotion, the shedding of carnal bodies giving way to an abstract purity beneath...'

Oliver Vernon and James Roper open solo shows, respectively, at NYC's Joshua Liner Gallery next Thursday, April 14. Vernon's Sprung and Roper's All and Nothing feature new works from both artists, both making returns to Liner Gallery, and marking Roper's first solo exhibition with the gallery. More after the jump . . .