The Derek Gores Takeover
The Riverland Arts & Culture Center is thrilled to present acclaimed mixed media collage artist, Derek Gores this October. Derek Gores is an internationally renowned artist best known for his collage portraits. Derek recycles magazines, labels, data, and assorted found analog and digital materials to create the works on canvas.
Derek will exhibit at the Arts & Culture Center from October 27th until November 27th in the main gallery spaces and will kick off the exhibition with a very special opening night celebration not to be missed – followed by a full day of mini-workshops with the artist. Stay tuned for all the details. Save the dates and plan to be a part of this extraordinary experience. Exclusive to Riverland residents, this is a rare opportunity to meet & greet and learn from one of the most unique and highly collectible artists of the New Contemporary Movement.
About the Artist:
Derek Gores was born 1971 in New York.
He received his BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1993.
Derek Gores recycles magazines, maps, data and more in his lush portraits on canvas. The balance of detail and playfulness in each piece reveals Gores’ knack for discovery and for building seemingly endless puzzles into his works. Rearranging the scraps, he is able to form a sort of surrealist image, where from afar a nearly photo-realistic image comes into focus. However, as the viewer gets near, the small scraps reveal themselves to be other pictures, song lyrics, charts, patterns and more, and sweep your attention away down a new rabbit hole.
Gores exhibits with top galleries in Los Angeles, Paris, Quebec, New England, Miami, and more. He’s considered part of the New Contemporary Movement, playing in a post internet and post pop-art vista, letting the real, digital, and virtual worlds mingle. He builds on Dada and Surrealist ideas from the last century, especially enjoying the idea of “automatic” art and allowing chance and repetition in as part of the process. Gores’ work is inclusive and inviting, partly due to the humble disposable materials, and partly due to the artist’s drive to connect and let the viewer in.
Derek says, “I play in the gap between what you see and what you think you see. Inside your head is the real canvas. As in those great old long-exposure photos from 150 years ago, where you can feel the whole minute inside each image, I’m after a buzzing stillness. I like my pictures to barely come together with teasing little details, trusting distractions, and chance encounters along the way. When it goes well, there’s a chance to create a real experience, instead of just a picture of an experience.”
