Kaden Van De Loo

Hurry-Up Offense

July 18 - August 29

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Reception

5 to 8 p.m. July 18

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Portrait Society Gallery is thrilled to present a summer, solo exhibition of recent work by Kaden Van De Loo, opening Friday, July 18, from 5 to 8 p.m. Hurry-Up Offense will include large and small oil paintings completed over the past year. 

 

Van De Loo’s abstractions reverberate around color. In each composition, a predominate background hue sets the tone and provides an atmosphere for recurring forms. The push and pull between the vibrancy of color and the care and considered restraint of the compositions generates unexpected energies that may feel biological, musical, or atmospheric. Each painting is titled with a single word that offers a hint of direction. 

 

Van De Loo states,  “Each painting develops from and within a single-colored ground, which acts like a supple membrane, airy atmosphere, syrupy pool, or waxy skin that forms can sink into, emerge from, or sit on top of. As the forms do not overlap or touch and are contained within the boundaries of the surface, they possess an otherworldly isolation that spotlights lateral relationships. Currently, each painting includes two or three distinct “types” of forms powered by group dynamics: affiliation, hierarchy, gestalt, abnormality, and competition.”

 

The title of the show comes from a football term. "The hurry-up offense is a strategy in which the offensive team reduces time between plays, shortening or eliminating huddles and moving quickly to assume each new formation,” Van De Loo states. “In my studio in recent months, formations have emerged quickly and purposefully, often settling into their completed states in one or two sessions. Reliant upon axis points and flirting with symmetry, the compositions are authoritative yet remain on edge, as if poised. Each painting is an urgent execution—a play—then onto the next.” 

 

Van De Loo earned his BFA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2024. PSG first introduced his work in a group show in 2023. His work was included in the recent issue of New American Paintings (No. 173). As part of the Plum Blossom Initiative, his work was recently exhibited at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

 

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Rafael Francisco Salas

Taxidermy/Drawing Room 

 

In PSG’s Adjacent Gallery, a new iteration of the Taxidermy/Drawing Room will continue through  August 29. The installation room opened as part of Everyday Heaven: Rafael Francisco Salas and Charles Van Schaick. While the main exhibition has closed, the Drawing Room will remain on view for the summer and be the site of a continued Drawing Salon program. The room will be re-installed with new drawings and paintings by Salas. 

 

For additional information, contact Portrait Society, portraitsocietygallery@gmail.com or 414 870-9930.

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