ROBERT MANGO : Civilization, Surrealism, & Humanity: SPIVA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Overview
ROBERT MANGO : Civilization, Surrealism, & Humanity, SPIVA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
The artist perceives the world as a depository of references, with symbolic meaning potentially in everything, from cultural objects to the natural environment.

SPIVA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Main Gallery

222 West 3rd Street

Joplin, Missouri 64801

(417) 623-0183

 

July 30 – October 29, 2022

Opening reception: Friday, July 29, 2022 | 5:30-7:30pm 

 

CONTACT: Jen Dragon, Cross Contemporary Art Projects

EMAIL: crosscontemporaryprojects@gmail.com

TEXT/Cell: 845-399-9751

 

Joplin, MO:  Rob Mango: Civilization, Surrealism, & Humanity opens Friday, July 29, 2022 with a reception for the artist from 5:30 - 7:30pm. This solo exhibition spans almost four decades, showcasing a selection of both flat and sculpted paintings.  Mango’s uniquely contemporary Baroque sensibility of vibrant colors, richly textured surfaces, elaborate construction, sweeping movement, figurative distortions with a dash of Surrealism, courses through depictions of the figure from representational to abstraction.  A nuanced aesthetic pleasure tempts the viewer while a narrative mix of art references and personal life engages in a determined conversation.

 

In Amiss in the Abyss, 1989, and The Strong Jester, 1998, Mango appropriates the image of the jester with its long tradition as a representation of the artist’s alter ego. In the earlier two dimensional painting the jester/artist confidently stands in front of the abyss with a fully loaded brush unabashedly engaged in the urgency of painting. Ten years later in The Strong Jester a wall of undulating interlocking metallic shapes encroaches, his costume is unraveling and his head is turned away with a loaded brush held low.  The painting, the very notion of which Mango seems to be questioning, is now part sculpture and part painting.  The wall and figure are now forms constructed of foam that are wrapped in painted canvas and attached to a support. Later paintings of women showcase Mango’s more recent immersion into sculpted paintings. The textured angular background of brilliant colors and metallic pigments interact in a dynamic dance of form and light at once dissecting the form and celebrating its movement.

 

Mango’s numerous solo exhibitions include the Duane Street Gallery, Dillon Gallery and Neo Persona Gallery in New York; Galerie L’Orangeraie, France; Radost Gallery, Czech Republic; N.A.M.E. gallery and Walter Kelly Gallery in Chicago, and the Krannert Art Museum University of Illinois.  He is included in well over 100 corporate, private and public collections.

 

Strong Jester © Robert Mango

Amiss in the Abyss © Robert Mango
Works
Press release

Joplin, MO:  Rob Mango: Civilization, Surrealism, & Humanity spans almost four decades, showcasing a selection of flat and sculpted paintings, construction, and drawings.  Mango’s uniquely contemporary Baroque sensibility of vibrant colors, richly textured surfaces, elaborate construction, sweeping movement, figurative distortions with a dash of Surrealism, courses through depictions of the figure from representational to abstraction.  A nuanced aesthetic pleasure tempts the viewer while a narrative mix of art references and personal life engages in a determined conversation.

In Amiss in the Abyss, 1989, and The Strong Jester, 1998, Mango appropriates the image of the jester with its long tradition as a representation of the artist’s alter ego. In the earlier two dimensional painting the jester/artist confidently stands in front of the abyss with a fully loaded brush unabashedly engaged in the urgency of painting. Ten years later in The Strong Jester a wall of undulating interlocking metallic shapes encroaches, his costume is unraveling and his head is turned away with a loaded brush held low.  The painting, the very notion of which Mango seems to be questioning, is now part sculpture and part painting.  The wall and figure are now forms constructed of foam that are wrapped in painted canvas and attached to a support. Later paintings of women showcase Mango’s more recent sculpted paintings. The textured angular background of brilliant colors and metallic pigments interact in a dynamic dance of form and light.  

Mango’s numerous solo exhibitions include the Duane Street Gallery, Dillon Gallery and Neo Persona Gallery in New York; Galerie L’Orangeraie, France; Radost Gallery, Czech Republic; N.A.M.E. gallery and Walter Kelly Gallery in Chicago, and the Krannert Art Museum University of Illinois.  He is included in well over 100 corporate, private and public collections.

 
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