Lyle Carbajal

Paintings by Lyle Carbajal

Lyle Carbajal is an American born artist working in a style possessed of a primitive energy, as well as sophistication of detail that is incredibly diverse and unique. His work, which he calls Urban+Primitive, has been shown internationally and has been associated with the following organizations: London’s Raw Vision Magazine, The British Consulate in Los Angeles, The Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) in Seattle and the Tennessee Public Television for the Arts.

While studying at the Art Institute of Seattle in the early 1990’s, and later on furthering his education in Nashville TN, he became interested in an array of related (and unrelated) subjects, which saw coursework in the fields of English, finance, law, negotiations as well as advertising and design. Shortly after receiving a degree in Nashville, he spent the following year volunteering full-time with a domestic Peace Corps program. While serving the southern United States he was exposed to as well as educated in southern regional culture, which would become the primer for much of his present work.

“Childhood memories and my Latin American background helped me search for a primitive expression of the world. Just like Debuffet, Twombly and Appel before me, my pursuit of “Brut” has lead me in both tangible and psychological directions, which I presume will continue indefinitely.” -Lyle Carbajal

Leigh J Mccluskey

Paintings by Leigh J Mccluskey

Leigh Joseph McCloskey is an American artist, actor, and writer. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous television shows and movies, including a 46-episode stint as Mitch Cooper on the popular American soap opera “Dallas”, and a leading role in the Dario Argento-helmed supernatural horror film “Inferno”.

Leigh J. McCloskey is also a painter. His work delves into ideas of religion, mythology, philo-Sophia and esotericism to string theory, quantum physics and the multidimensional nature of consciousness. He has deeply studied Hermeticism, Alchemy and the Kabbala and presents these ideas in his paintings..

Bernard Gilardi

Paintings by Bernard Gilardi, Self-Taught Magical Realist Artist

When Bernard Gilardi died in 2008 at the age of 88 he had made nearly four hundred oil paintings. The fruits of a more than forty-year effort, these works were tucked away in the basement studio of his Milwaukee home, neatly stacked amongst files of preliminary sketches and the magazine and newspaper cuttings from which he drew inspiration.

During his lifetime Gilardi hadn’t publicly exhibited any of his work. Ironically, it was Gilardi’s funeral that eventually brought his paintings out of the basement. A family friend attending the funeral at the Gilardi home saw his studio and told daughters Dee and Mary they should show their father’s work. This suggestion prompted the sisters to take photographs of a few paintings and send them to various galleries in the Milwaukee area.

Debra Brehmer, director of Milwaukee’s Portrait Society, was one of those who received the photographs. A contemporary art gallery, Portrait Society showcases both current and historic artists who work in portraiture. Brehmer called to inquire about the paintings immediately after looking at them. Soon she and artist Richard Knight, her assistant for the excursion, were descending into Gilardi’s basement studio and excitedly uncovering painting after painting. “We were down there with our mouths open,” says Brehmer. The two spent months in Gilardi’s basement studio, cataloging and photographing his paintings.

According to Brehmer, Gilardi is a rare example of a self-taught artist who, painting in his spare time, crafted not only a prolific amount of work—more than some professional artists—but work whose style and subject matter evolved over time. It’s even more incredible when one considers that he had no support group or critical audience from which he received feedback. His devout Catholic family mostly ignored his painting—to them it was simply “Bernard’s pastime”—or found the figures and faces he painted a bit too strange for contemplation.

Andy Kehoe

Forest Monster Paintings by Andy Kehoe

Andy Kehoe, a graduate of Parsons School of Design, paints works that depict themes that are dark in nature, yet are elevated above being frightening by the use of playful humor or a dreamy, fairytale like quality.
The otherwordly landscapes and nature-spirit denizens that populate Kehoe’s work open up an even deeper portal to Kehoe’s world, one that contains a similar magic and enigmatic mystery as that of Hayao Miyazaki.