黑料不打烊

For 鈥淩ECONTEXT,鈥� a combination of the terms RECON and CONTEXT, (RECON as an abbreviation for reconnaissance 鈥� a noun that comes from the French reconna卯tre, meaning recognize and CONTEXT as CON-TEXT or simply, TEXT), Colorado/Kansas artist Jerry Kunkel expands on his on-going homage to great historical painters while offering an expressive side-glance at the nature of culture itself. Kunkel鈥檚 layered image and text paintings merge the contemplative with the terse 鈥� each presented as the individual works that they are and when in exhibition, each piece smartly amplifies the meaning of the other. Kunkel鈥檚 expertly-rendered representations, or as the artist says, his 鈥渞e-representations,鈥� mine clues from past paintings while they are reimagined as a contemporary insider-art commentary inserting themselves onto the well-vetted stage of the historically approved art masters he admires. While Kunkel may also juxtapose contemporary, historical or mythological images to revealing or humorous effect, as with his painting of an artist poised to kiss a clownishly-attired figure recalling the mythic Pygmalion, it is also apparent that Kunkel鈥檚 imposed block-lettered font and select phrases are also important vehicles that provide context with an always surprising twist. Future with its double-knotted rope superimposed over a swirling hurricane and declarative text stating THE PAST IS PROLOGUE, is appointed next to another visual-play work of a painted wood-grain knot hole with the word OKAY imposed.  In association, the painting perhaps is meant to suggest that the current state of affairs are somehow NOT OKAY 鈥� or maybe, more simply, it is just a play of opposites, as Kunkel encourages all such interpretations.