Jim Hittinger & Terrence Payne are bringing their irreverent world view to Rosalux Gallery this coming February with their newest exhibition, Stand-Ins. The pair have been busy creating works that turn over rocks in the corners of the American zeitgeist revealing the duplicitous machinations that ordinarily go unseen. Hittinger’s large scale paintings use delightfully banal imagery to cast light into the shadows of the everyday, while Payne’s oversized oil pastel drawings dissect the visage of normalcy as both artists endeavor to reveal the turning gears that drive American lives. Stand-Ins will run from February 8th through the 29th with an artists' reception on Saturday, February 8th from 7-10 PM.
The imagery in Jim Hittinger's work references holidays, ceremonies, horror movies, and other phenomena that mark a belief, or suspension of disbelief, in a higher power or the supernatural. This imagery exists alongside that of the mundane, where no suspension of disbelief is required, but unseen forces are still lurking just out of sight. Duplicates, replicas, decoys, and imposters figure heavily into his charged imagery, exploring the uncanny and the ways humans memorialize and monumentalize ourselves and our ideas. The juxtaposition of “real” or living objects and figures with lifeless duplicates creates a world where the line between the two is obscured, where people are indistinguishable from their monuments to themselves, as are their belief systems from the rituals and celebrations used to express them.
Jim Hittinger relocated to the Twin Cities from Detroit, Michigan in 2012 to pursue an MFA degree at the University of Minnesota, where he is now a lecture faculty member of drawing and painting. He has been a member of the Rosalux collective since 2015. His work has been widely exhibited locally and nationally, with recent exhibitions in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Austin. His work will also be exhibited in an upcoming drawing exhibition at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at The University of Minnesota.
Terrence Payne uses the aggravated playfulness of his large-scale oil pastel drawings to explore the ways which individuals and communities scheme and contrive to maintain their influence over others in the face of a vanishing world where they once held the comfortable seat of dominance. His drawings cut through the tangle of sincerity and carelessness embedded in the communication of identity and examine how insecurity and paranoia can lead to unintended harms in the wake of self preservation. Payne creates vibrant archetypal portraits using animism, repetition and typography to probe the values of faith and fellowship while maintaining a critical eye on those who would use a community’s earnest intentions against them for their own selfish aims. The humorous and empathetic allegories resulting from Payne’s creations may leave more questions than answers to his initial query, but will surely offer entertaining comforts for his audience nonetheless.
Terrence resides in Minneapolis Minnesota, and has exhibited his work at galleries, universities and museums throughout the Midwest. His work can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections around the globe. Terrence’s artwork has received critical acclaim and recognition from media outlets such as Beautiful Decay, Juxtapoz, Dwell Magazine, Bust Magazine, It’s Nice That, The Jealous Curator, Boooooom, and The Minneapolis Star Tribune to name a few. In the spring of 2002 Terrence founded what was to become the longest running artists collective in Minneapolis called Rosalux Gallery. He has served as the leader of Rosalux since the beginning, helping a multitude Minnesota artists realize their artistic ambitions and further their studio careers through their relationship with the gallery.
Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday from 12-4 PM or by appointment. The gallery is located at 1400 Van Buren St Ne, Suite 195, Minneapolis, MN, 55413. For more information on the history of Rosalux and details on the exhibition you can contact Gallery Director Terrence Payne at terrencepayneart@gmail.com
Preview More work from The Artists for Stand Ins:
Terrence Payne
Jim Hittinger
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