Baker Overstreet
Follies
August 26th through October 4th, 2008
Artist’s Reception: September 5th, 6-8 pm
Fredericks & Freiser is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Baker Overstreet. Overstreet relies on an aesthetic that is rooted in folk and primitive arts. He employs unbalanced symmetry and ornamental patterning to make emblematic compositions that define human or architectural figures while subverting familiar form. This inherent contradiction (between the familiar and unfamiliar, the worldly and other worldly) creates a space where individual elements clash. The resulting phenomenon allows for an altered state where the specificity of an image gives way to something open and universal. These paintings are a record of that shared commonality.
In Follies, Overstreet conveys his extra-curricular interest in the theater and its role as the root of his abstracted compositions. His style remains rough-hewn, with a wobbled symmetry, however his use of pattern and color have been blown to a point that is notably related to stage and scene design, the nightclub, neon signage and the golden era of the Hollywood musical. Still utilizing a folk aesthetic, he employs a “primitivism meets disco” approach resulting in an almost slot machine-like embodiment of exoticism, indulgence, and sexuality.
About the Artist
Baker Overstreet received his MFA from Yale University in 2006. He has been included in group shows at China Art Objects, Los Angeles; Artspace, New Haven; Sister, Los Angeles; and will be included in the upcoming “Abstract America,” Saatchi Gallery, London. He will have a solo show at Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis in 2009. This is Overstreet’s second solo exhibition at Fredericks & Freiser.
