Kim E. Alexander, Jr.
Sean Alexander
Darin Shuler

Just Drawings

December 3–27, 2008

Two-dimensional artists Kim E. Alexander, Jr., Sean Alexander, and Darin Shuler bring an unusual group of drawings to the SOIL Gallery. 

Joining three artists who spend much of their waking lives drawing, this exhibition is aptly named Just Drawing. An intense and diverse display of spectacles in ink and pencil, each artist's work has a definite commitment to the illustrated form, each one taking very divergent paths in subject and style. The visual terrain covered ranges from the surreal to absurd, to the absolutely boundless.

Kim E. Alexander, Jr. continues his investigation into issues of scale, geography, mapping, and the environment with a new series of drawings on Mylar. Alexander uses his experience with drafting as a basis to create highly complex, multi-layered, and abstract compositions. Each piece is developed utilizing intuition and unconstrained mark making. The result is an explosive rendering of geometries in transition.

Sean Alexander lives and works in Tacoma, Washington, where he created this unique collection of lonely fantasies. Using obsessive detail and a host of recurring patterns, the drawings frequently feature self-referential characters, alluded to through their nervous postures. Accompanying the characters is a rotating roster of whimsical symbols, which includes hammers, alcoholic beverages, ladders, windows, rats, cigarettes, the sunmoon (the moonsun), snakes, wood floors, sneakers, ice cubes, and cacti.

Darin Shuler's art uses cartoon iconography from his childhood to express his thoughts. His most recent drawings involve ideas and imagery inspired by fairytales, folklore, and legends from around the world. The magic of Chinese fairytales, the monsters of Native American stories, and the visual absurdity within German and Irish allegories have all contributed to the grotesque, violent imagery of his current work.