Press Release: It Figures

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

NEW PAINTING EXHIBITION

DAMON LEHRER AND RICK BERRY: IT FIGURES

BOSTON, MA – August 29, 2011 William Scott Gallery and Boston based figurative painters Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry announce the September exhibition of their work “IT FIGURES” with the opening reception to be held September 9, 2011, 6-9 pm at William Scott Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, #65, Boston.

Berry’s refined brutalism and spontaneous generation of bodies under strain and release contrast hypnotically with Lehrer’s perverted baroque style. Together their work expresses a joyous explosion of the possibilities of “traditional” media, and different approaches to knitting together new and old, street and museum culture, the synchronicity of pop and salon.

Berry and Lehrer met through mutual friend and sometime collaborator, Phil Hale (cult illustrator and also official portrait painter of British Prime Minster Tony Blair). Lehrer has since founded the collective known as the Boston Figurative Art Center; Berry joined in response to its mission to promote figure painting in its many incarnations as a primary focus for contemporary art in Boston and beyond.

Damon Lehrer received his Master of Fine Arts degree at Boston University in 1994. His work is in the collections of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, The Acadia Foundation of Richard Estes, The New York and Boston Public Libraries, Dartmouth College, Tulane University, Bowdoin College, and Boston University, as well as many private collections in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Rick Berry left high school and started at 17 in underground comics, expanding into popular culture with art for Marvel and DC comics, major book and gaming publishers, television and feature film (including acting as Keanu Reeves’ cyber stunt double in Johnny Mnemonic.) A pioneer in new media, Berry created the world’s first digital cover for a novel in 1984 for William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Authors Frank M. Robinson, Stephen King, Peter Straub and Neil Gaiman have commissioned his illustrations and collected his work. His fine art paintings are also in private collections across Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as in two books of his work, Double Memory (with Phil Hale) and Sparrow: the Art of Rick Berry. He recently worked for three seasons in residency with OperaBoston, then with the American Repertory Theater for Amanda Palmer’s Cabaret.

Immediately following “IT FIGURES,” William Scott Gallery will host a group exhibition called "National Figures" for the month of October in which Berry and Lehrer invite selected nationally and internationally known figure painters, many with Boston connections, into the image-driven conversation. Artists include Phil Hale, Anne Harris, Ken Beck, Bill Carman, Ed Stitt, Paul Goodnight, Jim Burke, George Pratt, Scott Bakal and others. The Opening Reception will be on October 7 from 6-9pm.

Lehrer interviews Berry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPUrzCLs5bE

http://damonlehrer.com/

http://www.rickberrystudio.com/

William Scott Gallery, Provincetown - Boston

Brian Galloway, 617-542-4040, bgalloway@williamscottgallery.com

Boston Hours: Wed - Sat 12 -5pm, Sunday 12 -4pm