Both at 2 cols.

Damian Loeb, “M,” 2005, oil on linen, 46 by 96 inches.

Damian Loeb, “The High and the Mighty,” 2008, oil on linen, 36 by 84 inches.  

FOR 8/15 OR MUST FOR 8/22

ACQUARELLA GALLERIES DAMIEN LOEB W/2 CUTS

AK/cd #747924

NEW YORK CITY — Known for his “hyper-realistic paintings” that are created from classic movies’ still frames combined with found images and made into collage, figurative artist Damian Loeb (b 1970) takes a fleeting image, changes its context and recreates it to reveal its ominous undercurrent.

On September 5, Acquavella Galleries will present an exhibition of nearly 20 new works by Loeb that either reference ideas of perception and subjectivity or refer to emotional states that can affect observation. In creating these new paintings, the artist also taught himself photography so that he could accumulate the images he found important to express. “Synesthesia, Parataxic Distortion, and The Shadow: A Show of Paintings by Damian Loeb” will launch the gallery’s fall season and will remain on to October 7.

The psychological terms used in the exhibition’s title refer to “the three agents of confusion and enemies of clarity” that form perceptual distortion, imposition of preconceived ideas onto the complex or unfamiliar or the effect of innate human weaknesses and insecurities onto a person’s perceptions. The varied results of this phenomenon fascinate the artist and guide his work; hence he addresses them in this show.

Loeb is know for his love of cinema, which also greatly influences his creative process. He looks to the directors — both classic and contemporary — who he compares to the great masters of fine art — as “shining examples” of inspiration and illumination “for any artist to strive to emulate,” he says. In fact, the titles of several works shown in “Synesthesia, Parataxic Distortion and The Shadow” come from titles of some of his favorite films.

Loeb was born in New Haven, Conn.; he moved to New York City in 1989, where he presently lives and works. He had his first solo shows in 1996–97 at White Columns, a not-for-profit gallery and New York’s oldest alaternative art space, followed by a 1999 exhibition at the Mary Boon Gallery. Since then, he has had international solo and group shows at galleries and museums, including White Cube in London, Jablonka Galerie in Cologne, the Kunsthalle in Hamnburg and a 2006 retrospective at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Conn. — the town in which he was raised.

Acquavella Galleries are at 18 East 79th Street. For more information, 212-734-6300 or www.acquavellagalleries.com.