PAST EXHIBITION

Jean-Marc Calvet: Redemption

September 4, 2008—October 4, 2008

It is the point where all that was familiar and understood begins to slip away into a gray world lacking definition. Where time holds no relevance or sense of structure and the past and present melt together to create their own distorted sense of unreality. It is a place where the soul’s monsters celebrate freedom in a frenzied orgy of self destruction and external mayhem.

Whichever road this insidious evil chooses to take, the impact is both devastating and all consuming, unless of course the soul is graced to find the exit from this nightmare downward journey marked….. “Redemption”.

Calvet delivers a marked sophistication in his latest works that adds clarity yet maintains the spirit of the true brut style that birthed him as an artist. His repertoire of colors continues to develop giving a richness that further enhances his work.

Monkdogz Urban Art would like to welcome Jean Marc Calvet on his return to the light and offer this decisive warning:

“Those who forget where they came from……are bound to relive their past….”

Jean Marc Calvet arrives in New York City with a Pandora’s Box of man made monsters and the grace of redemption. A combination destined to produce an explosive visual arts experience.

Calvet is a self taught painter whose evolution is currently being captured in a powerful documentary film which is sure to propel him into the bright lights of world recognition and respect.

His works could best be described as Hieronymus Bosch and Dante discovering an art studio in Hell and suggesting Calvet execute the work for their next exhibition. The brilliance of these works stem from their raw brutal honesty. They are both alarming and fascinating in their explosive use of color and intricate detailing. Each work is unique and personal in that they allow the viewer an opportunity to reach out and touch Calvet’s pain, fear, and vulnerability. And in doing so they may awaken the dark thoughts of uncertainty that dance just below the surface of their own fragile sense of stability.
“The Darker Side of Midnight”
Bob Hogge

“There is a very real danger for an artist as brilliant as Calvet in having too colorful a back-story. It is too easy for the legend to flourish at the expense of the art. (Just think how many people know nothing about van Gogh except that he cut off his ear.) That Calvet happens to be self-taught only complicates matters. It could too easily get him relegated to the gilded ghetto of so-called "outsider art" and deprived of his rightful place in the mainstream art world, where he most definitely belongs, given the innate sophistication of his vision and the accomplished technique with which he makes it manifest on canvas.”
Ed McCormack, Editor in Chief of Gallery & Studio Magazine

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