This Saturday, June 20, A Gallery will hold an opening reception for painter Billy Hoff from 5 to 7 pm. His exhibit will be on display through July 1, with selected work through 2015.
Billy Hoff’s narrative paintings, some set in landscapes referencing seafaring eras bygone, blur lines between the exterior and interior worlds of memory, fantasy, and illustrated storytelling. Real-life characters significant to the artist from his life, and others from favorite films and literature populate the canvas, inconspicuously allowing emotional entry to the bittersweet themes of innocence, love, and loss.
Mr. Hoff is inspired by classic illustrators like Howard Pyle, Frank Schoonover, and N.C. Wyeth, and painters such as Daumier, Bill Jensen, Terry Winters, Van Gogh, Victor Man, Albert York, Peter Doig, Michael Andrews, and R.B. Kitaj.
Bold colors, the physicality of markings, and frenetic energy dominate what he calls “content and form picture making.”
Mr. Hoff earned a B.F.A. from Ithaca College, with a concentration in painting and drawing, in 1991 and a M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in painting and drawing in 1995.
For more information about his exhibit, email Tanya Augoustinos at agallerymv@hotmail.com.
