Over the past few years, Terry Rodgers has emerged as one of America’s most talented and controversial contemporary painters. His large-scale hyper-realistic grandes machines have prompted critics to wonder at the real scope of his endeavour. Some have criticized it as mere kitsch, others have praised it as one of the most remarkable exponents of today’s return to figuration. None of them, however, dismiss it. One would be at pain to overlook Rodgers’ sweeping success in as much as his craftsmanship forces admiration upon any of those who dare to look at it. Rodgers has exhibited worldwide and his work is part of the most prominent collections on both sides of the Atlantic. It is one of the most emblematic attempts at capturing the spirit of these special times.
In a critique for Art in America, Cathy Byrd elegantly describes Rodgers’ work as an ‘elegy of emptiness’. Promiscuity, wealth and beauty do not seem to fill the existential void, which apparently appalls the characters in Rodgers’ paintings. A sense of imminent disaster looms as money, physical perfection and the promise of sex fail to bring happiness. Rodgers’ joyless gatherings echo “the disappointment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s hollow glamour seekers and the bourgeois ennui mined by Eric Fischl and David Salle,” as Byrd pointedly remarks. As youth, financial success and unbridled consumption do constitute the founding pillars of our contemporary culture, Rodgers delineates the ethical bankruptcy of the West.
The compositions develop as Rodgers creates collages of individual photographs taken in his studio or on location. These are then transposed to the canvas with oil paint. The creation process literally embodies the impossibility of a true encounter, which constitutes the core theme of Rodgers’ paintings. The only significant gaze is ours. As though through the keyhole of a prohibited room, we get a glimpse of these disenchanted celebrations. Nobody pays attention. We have become voyeurs in a world where blindness has become a function of looking.
Bending the Cosmos will be on exhibition from the 28th of February through the 28th of March 2009 at TORCH Gallery in Amsterdam. The opening is scheduled on the 28th of February from 4 to 6 p.m.