Dean De Cocker

Howard Hersh

 

January 13 - March 3, 2018

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The Residents

858 Stanyan Street

San Francisco

 

 

Duval Contemporary is pleased to present the newest work of Howard Hersh and Dean De Cocker in a two-person show through March 3rd, 2018 at The Residents located at 858 Stanyan Street in San Francisco.

From the first winged-shaped structures to the current work, Dean de Cocker has been exploring his interest in formal elements by transforming flat, two-dimensional surfaces into three-dimensional objects. He derives much of my inspiration from everyday objects such as mailboxes, aircraft structures, wings and propellers, heavy machinery, and architectural works. These objects become conceptual elements, which he transforms first into drawings. Then, via techniques of aircraft construction, De Cocker has fabricated objects of inner structures and outer coverings that created volumetric enclosures. His impeccable craftsmanship and his recent interest in collecting BMX bicycles from the ’70s has led to subtle changes in structure and color.  De Cocker has exhibited for the past widely since 1990.  The Merced Multicultural Art Center will present a twenty years survey of Dean de Cocker’s work scheduled to open on February 9, 2018. De Cocker works and lives in Turlock, CA, and is a member of the art faculty at CSU Stanislaus.

 

Howard Hersh is a painter and a builder but after working with melted wax for fifteen years, he decided to give it up. His beloved workstation with over ten years of poured wax is now part of the Process Museum’s permanent collection in Tuscon, AZ. Despite a new departure, Hersh continues to be inspired by the element of structure as a universal metaphor for order, space, beliefs, work, down to the cellular structure of our being. Hersh builds intricate wooden structures, paints luscious surfaces, and often reveals the armature itself implying that while paintings are pictures of things (illusions), they are also objects, standing on their own.  His paintings become visual jinx saw puzzles where the negative space is as important as the painted surfaces. Lines drawn in multiple directions allow your eyes to travel easily to the four corners of the plane. With each one of his works, Hersh breaks the conventional and traditional rectangular, flat format creating dimensionality and a deeper field of vision.

He has exhibited extensively for the past twenty years in the US and abroad. Hersh lives and works in San Francisco.