“Three Styles, One Artist” Allan Rodewald to
bring his work to Taft McWhorter Fine Art January
(HOUSTON) While many artists
focus on one theme, Houston artist Allan Rodewald refuses to limit his
vision. Lately he has concentrated
on three styles and will exhibit the resulting work next month at Taft
McWhorter Fine Art (TMFA). The
opening reception will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30 at
TMFA’s new location at 2219 Canal Street.
Rodewald’s art will remain on view by appointment only.
“I enjoy working on a variety of styles,” said
Rodewald. “I believe if I did just
one, my creativity would burn out.
I’m never stuck with artist’s block.”
Of Rodewald’s three series, Fabric, Plexi-Canvas and
Dream, he has worked on the Fabric series the longest. The idea started when he was in
college, airbrushing custom designs on motorcycles, cars and boats.
“I saw how the airbrush left soft folds on the
masking paper and years later when I resurrected my fine arts
career, I remembered it. I have been expanding on it for about
10 years now, and I see endless possibilities ahead,” he said.
The Plexi-canvas series came sort of by accident.
Rodewald had been experimenting with painting in reverse on Plexiglas and glass
for a couple of years.
“One day I set a Plexiglas piece in front of a
canvas painting. I thought the two looked better together than separate, so I
developed them to work as one,” he said. “I call them my codependent dyptics,
which makes everyone laugh, but they are truly two pieces of art that do not
work unless they are together.”
His Dream series emerged from his classic training as
a realist. About six years ago, he took some dramatic photos out of an airplane
of an extraordinary sunset above the clouds.
“These photos intrigued me for many years until one
day I began to paint them. I found the perspective interesting because most
people view clouds from the ground up. These paintings were from the sky looking
down. This perspective gave the viewer the sense of floating,” he said. “We’ve
all had a dream of floating.”
Rodewald says
he pursues abstract art to escape the limits of the real world. He studied art as a youth in rural
Southeastern Michigan, with his mother and father as his first teachers. He quickly moved from charcoal and
pastels, until by age12, he was doing oil paintings.
While
earning his B.F.A. in drawing and painting at Siena Heights College in
Michigan, he studied art abroad in Florence, Rome and Venice. He has created
his own business in Houston, Expressive Design Studios, which specializes in
custom paint and graphic arts and doubles as his studio and art gallery.
Rodewald’s work was recently
featured at Art Basel Miami, considered the most important art show in the
United States and the sister event of Switzerland's Art Basel, the largest art
fair in the world. Now back in
Houston, he is putting the finishing touches on his paintings for his solo
exhibit at TMFA.
“I’ll continue to work in all three areas until I've
exhausted the possibilities in each series,” Rodewald said. “But for now, I just can’t
paint fast enough.”
For more information about
Rodewald, visit his web site www.allanrodeawald.com.
For more information about
TMFA, visit www.taftmcwhorterfineart.com
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About the Taft McWhorter
Fine Art:
Located blocks away from
Minute Maid Park, next to Canal Street Gallery, this downtown gallery features
original works by local artists. The gallery also offers consulting and
marketing services for artists. www.taftmcwhorterfineart.com.
The Gallery is open by appointment only.
713-868-4616.
Attached photos courtesy of Allan Rodewald.
