14 November - 13 December, 2009
Lars Bohman Gallery
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Lars Bohman Gallery is pleased to present Brendan Cass' second solo show with the gallery. The exhibition, New Works, consists of a series of new paintings.

The paintings carry titles such as Uusikaupunki, Bergen and Mýrdalsjökull. These are places the artist rarely or never has visited, but only explored through images and travel magazines. The viewer is invited to a journey that takes off in the Icelandic cathedral Halgrimskirkja, that continues via a dreamlike Arcadia and a rich imagery to finish in the Irish village of Glendalough. The paintings take us to Norwegian fjords, Lapland's mountains and German castles. Without making any exact reproductions of these sites, Brendan Cass creates dreamlike scenarios where the paint and the light play the defining roles.

In conjunction with the show the gallery presents a catalogue, fully illustrated including works from his two shows at the gallery.

Brendan Cass conveys these places with nerve and excitement, in spite of the idealised photos of the places the artist has used as inspiration. With layer upon layer Cass' often large-scale paintings generate a strong physical presence, he works with large brush-strokes and he even lets the paint drip directly onto the canvas. Nonetheless, his paintings grow over a long period of time and they speak of a conscious and meticulous process. The artist succeeds in combining the painterly generosity with the carefully depicted details. In this dialectic approach lays the artist strength. Cass creates contradictory, yet harmonious, works where dream and reality come together and where the notion of escapism is filled with positive references.

Brendan Cass was born in 1974 in New Jersey, USA. He now lives and works in New York. He has received much attention for his exhibitions and already as a student he was mentioned in ArtForum. Brendan Cass received his artistic training at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College i Annandale, NY, at School of Visual Art, New York, NY and at the SUNY Purchase, in Purchase, NY. Brendan Cass has exhibited separately among others at Stellan Holm, New York, Freight & Volume, New York, CANADA, New York, Kenny Schachter conTEMPorary, New York, Galeria Leyendecker, Tenerife and at Velge & Noirhomme, Brussels.