San Francisco, CA -- FFDG is pleased to present Philadelphia based painter Jim Houser in his first solo show with the gallery entitled “Night Got Quiet - Not Quite Light” featuring 15 new mixed media paintings and site-specific installation works. The pieces feature his familiar concepts of visual story telling, using and repeating symbols, stylized figures, hand-drawn typography, symbolic words, visual sensations, and geometric shapes, creating his own iconography. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, July 11th (6-9pm). Beer and wine will be available. Jim Houser will be present.
Using his signature color palette, the shades of sky blue, turquoise, baby blue, dark red or burgundy, Jim Houser gives his work an innocent almost naive feel. The paintings narrate stories about moments, experiences and emotions from the artist’s life in an unique way, using both graphic elements and symbols, and literal words. Skateboards, books, fish scales, arrows, portraits, ramps, waves and written words, are some of his favorite elements, all presented in cluster like forms and are often created using collage, acrylic, found objects, wood or fabric, blurring the lines between flat images and sculpture by forming highly textured pieces.
Jim Houser was born in 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city where he currently resides. He is a self-taught artist and an honorary member of the Philly-based artist collective Space1026. His work explores the cadence of speech, science and science fiction, sickness and disease, plants and animals, time travel, ghosts , the art of children and the gravity of fatherhood, codes and code breaking, music and music making.
Houser’s collages, paintings and installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Brazil. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art. Recently, Houser released a vinyl record of instrumental music composed to accompany his installations.
