Portland's Nucleus Gallery has this two-person exhibition on view through July 31, exploring the dreamlike narrative of Davor Gromilović, a surrealist illustrator, and Paolo Puck, a sculpture of lovely and grotesque characters. Both artists experiment outside of their usual medium with a new take on woodcut, oil-based prints, and relief sculpture. The Magic Hairball Of The Ruby Eyed Panther will bring you into a world of colorful creatures and bizarre, yet, captivating shapes.
Born in Yugoslavia, visual artist Davor Gromilovic currently resides in Sombor, Serbia. Although contemporary drawing represents the primary field of his creative exploration and development, he also shows creative abilities and genuine commitment to other art forms, such as painting, illustration, graphics, murals, art fanzines, etc. His work tells a story often inspired by fantastic motives of fairy tales, folk-art, pop surrealism, sci-fi, even, north renaissance masters of painting, as well as by his personal experiences and inner world. In his work, one notices a dominant use of symbols, his inner world and complex reflections from which he develops ideas and specific intimate aesthetics. Complex, but at the same time purified, strongly imaginative but well-thought-out works adorn this artist’s rich oeuvre.
Paolo Puck is a British-born artist currently residing in the United States. Originally trained as an illustrator, Puck began teaching himself sculpture and woodcarving in 2011. His journey began whilst whittling a mermaid under a tree in the Pyrenees mountains. The process of turning a twig into a mermaid struck him as a magical one, and he has been hooked ever since.
“As an artist, I draw from the deep waters of the human subconscious, visiting a landscape of dreams to retrieve ideas and characters that form the basis of my sculptural work. My sculptures present a contrast between the familiar and the foreign, the inviting and the unsettling.
By obscuring the boundary between beauty and ugliness, the safe and the dangerous, the inviting and the repelling, the familiar and the foreign, the graceful and the grotesque, we are forced to consider that one might also be the other. through that notion, we are able to encroach further into the otherness of our dreams and imagination than we might otherwise fear to tread.”
