Opening January 14th, 5:30 - 7:30pm

John Bankston’s new paintings, drawings, and sculptures continue his exploration of themes using a loose narrative structure to unite disparate visual elements. New to his image inventory are objects from his personal African art collection including masks, statues, and textiles that start as tools of transformation within the narratives but also as symbols of the cultures that produced them.

The paintings are Bankston’s musings or day dreams inspired by these objects – the stories are self contained and open ended, allowing viewers to enter and become part of the story as they ponder the significance of the objects. Drawings act as details of the paintings and may further focus viewer consideration on objects or textiles that connect the characters. The ceramic sculptures are three dimensional explorations of the paintings yet the heavy lines and flat colors de-emphasize the third dimension in favor of a direct reading of the details. Small tribal statuettes hand-held by larger characters or standing alone like monoliths appear to have powers that are universally understood but not translated for us. Their still presence in either case transforms the scene from one of action to one of attention or perhaps contemplation.

While Bankston’s works concretize his musings on the carvings, votive objects, and African textiles within a new context and new media, the objects themselves maintain their enigmatic powers and mystery. Bankston plays with the viewers’ assumptions of just how much of a role the objects play within the character’s identity by positioning them on the periphery of much of the scenery.

John Bankston was born in 1963 in Benton Harbor, Michigan and currently lives and works in San Francisco. He obtained his MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago in 1990 and has had solo shows at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York (2007) and the de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco (2006). A 2002 SFMOMA SECA winner, Bankston’s work has also been featured in group shows including Black Alphabet –The Context of Contemporary African- American Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2006); African Queen, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City (2005) and Seeing Double: Encounters with Warhol, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2005).

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