STATEMENT

He crawls through the meadow grass, hunting color.  The dust, golden, chokes his nostrils.  The sun beats down, but he knows he must go on.  Moving with a parched creep, he crests a slight knoll.  He spies his prey.

Squinting, gauging the distance, gripping his expressive javelin.

SLASH!  STAB!  The cotton-weaved beast writhes and fights back!  The battle drags on.  Months pass as they trade blows.  Discouraged, eyes swollen to slits, the artist doubts himself.  Why did he embark unto this cruel land, hunting this most savage quarry?  What of the preparation, the sacrifice, loves forsaken and forlorn?  For this?  To wrestle the devil himself?

But Ha!  The beast slips.  Time stands still.  Instinct, like a concrete wall henceforth obscured in fog, takes control.

The artist thrusts his blade!  The canvas struggles to know how it lays on the earth, passing into the next life, vanquished.  Succumbing to its crowning state, it reaches out in ecstasy to accept the final flicks of the palette knife.  A great battle has been won . . . by the artist!

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BIO

Layton Hower grew up in Appalachian Virginia and studied painting at Davidson College in North Carolina, graduating in 2003.  Shortly thereafter, inspired by the exotic landscape of the American Southwest, Hower moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Hower moved to Brooklyn in 2006 where he continues to paint and exhibit his work.

Layton Hower has been called a “full-blown, head-gasket-shredding abstract expressionist” whose work is “knock-down, drag-out, heavy-duty, pedal-to-the-metal, . .” by critic Wesley Pulkka of the Albuquerque Journal.

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CV

Solo Exhibitions

New York Public Library / Mulberry St. Branch.  New York, NY.  November 2 – January 2, 2008+9

Residue.  Spread Gallery.  Brooklyn, NY.  November 21 – 23, 2008

Wyckoff Starr Cafe.  Brooklyn, NY.  November 3 – December 1, 2008

Incandescence.  Artspace 116, Albuquerque NM.  May 5 – June 16, 2006

Closed Circuit.  Exhibit 208, Albuquerque NM.  January 29 – Feburary 26, 2005

New Paintings.  Senior Exhibition.  Edward M. Smith Gallery, Davidson NC.  May 1 – 7, 2003

Horizons.  Alvarez Salon, Davidson NC.  November 4 – December 1, 2002

Group Exhibitions, selected

Landscapes Metamorphic, Topologies Chromatoplastic.  Centotto Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.

April 29-June 5, 2011

Flan.  Studio 225, Beta Spaces.  Brooklyn, NY.  November 14, 2010

Terrae and the Ether.  Centotto Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.  February, 2010

Space is the Case.  Studio 225, Brooklyn, NY.  November 6-8, 2009

SeenNotSeen:  Metaphors of Beauty.  Santiago’s Art Factory, Albuquerque, NM.

March 20 – April 30, 2009

Beta Spaces / an Arts in Bushwick Event.  Norte Maar Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.  November 9 – 23, 2008

LaGrange National XXV Biennial.  LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange, GA.  March 1 – April 24, 2008 Curator:  Jeffrey Grove, High Museum, Atlanta GA

Organization of Independent Artists:  Sixth Annual Juried Exhibition.  New York Law School, New York, NY.  March 10 – April 28, 2008

Bibliography

Pulkka, Wesley.  “Hall Captures Music’s Energy”.  The Albuquerque Journal.  June 4, 2006

Stevens, Amanda.  “Artist Draws on Life Experiences as Inspiration for His Acrylic Paintings”.  The Albuquerque Journal.  May 5, 2006

Pulkka, Wesley.  “Abstract Expressionist Lets Humor, Pathos Walk Hand in Hand on Canvases”.  The Albuquerque Journal.  Feburary. 6, 2005

Grants

Douglas Houchens Studio Art Award.  Davidson College, Davidson NC.  2002

Bayles Travel Grant.  Davidson College, Davidson NC.  2002

Education

Davidson College, Davidson NC, B. A. Studio Art.   2003