The Instinct Art Gallery in Minneapolis will be showing a selection of platinum prints from The Midnight Garden alongside the bronze work of David Aschenbrener in a pop-up show in November. The exhibition runs from November 5th – 8th with the opening on the 5th from 6pm – 8pm.
Instinct Art Gallery,
940, Nicollet Mall,
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 208-0696
Gallery Hours: Wed-Fri 12-6pm, Sat 11-5pm
The artists featured in this exhibition, David Aschenbrener and Cy DeCosse, are true Romantics in the Byronesque sense: Aschenbrener’s fantastic spectral figures and exotic flowers resemble escapees from an extraordinarily gothic Tim Burton movie set, correspondingly, DeCosse’s flowers, in particular, those from the ‘Midnight Garden’ series, are otherworldly, ethereal creatures, almost too beautiful to be true.
Both artists find inspiration in nature and have returned to it as a subject again and again. This exhibition is an exploration of their mutual admiration of the botanical world. Aschenbrener’s powerful sculptures of figures and flowers feature lovely expressionistic bronze polychrome patinas. DeCosse’s elegant photographs of flowers, including many that bloom exclusively by night, reveal themselves in rich velvety black & white platinum prints and vibrantly colored gum dichromates.
Aschenbrener and DeCosse are inspired by the abundant beauty they habitually observe by making time to purposefully experience the natural world every day. Their patience has been developed over decades of practice and a persistence that has paid handsomely as nature continues to reveal itself to them. These artists’ purposeful devotion to the natural world is ultimately unveiled as a gift shared with those who view their work.
David Aschenbrener
creates bronze sculptures that are born of ice and realized in the form of singular, non-editioned artworks that observe and interpret the beauty and mystery of nature.
What would become David’s medium of choice was made clear to him while studying Fine Art at UW-Stout. His instructors observed his technique of “painting sculpture” and urged him to continue experimenting with his work in bronze.
After spending years perfecting his craft while working in fine art foundries around the country, David has developed his very own process, skillfully employing the ancient “lost wax” casting technique that he uses today to cast his unique sculptures.
Cy DeCosse
brings his background of fine artist and commercial art director to the art of photography. His love of photography began in Florence, Italy as a Fulbright student in 1954 and continued as he collaborated with many of America’s best photographers in his career as an agency Art Director.
In 1994, De Cosse returned to his passion for photography and began exploring the traditional process of platinum printing exclusively for two years. In 2001, with Keith Taylor as the printer, they began a revival of the gum dichromate technique, an alternative process that produces a color print of extraordinary beauty.
DeCosse’s beautiful photographs are realized through masterful use of 19th-century historic alternative processes including platinum-palladium, polymer-photogravure and gum dichromate.