A 3-Man show with Greg Miller and Michael Callas.
A marker of a great work of art is its timelessness. JoAnne Artman Gallery proudly presents, Yes, Masters: A MANthology, an exhibition of recent works by Danny Galieote, Greg Miller, and Michael Callas which pays homage to the past by putting a present-day spin on age-old masterpieces. A departure from their typical styles and subjects, each artist created specifically for this exhibition. Daring to assume a different artistic paradigm that combines 20th century attitude with traditional European sensibility, the culmination is a shared dialogue challenging conventional narratives in art with expressive color and a focus on figuration. Playful and satirical, these contemporary adaptations of art history merge the classical with the commodification of art in pop culture and mass media, all while bringing Old Masters into a new world.
Drawn from the term, “Old Masters,” the title refers to such prolific artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. Derived and abstracted from Old Master paintings and ideologies, Galieote, Miller, and Callas deconstruct pictorial language and artistic agency through investigating the ways in which their masculinity, identity, and individualism are embedded in both the significance and composition of each work. Using art history as a stepping-stone for newfound interpretations through the lens of pop subjectivity, these artists acknowledge the legacies of their predecessors in their modern and spirited anthologies.
A California native, Galieote began his art career in Disney animation studios. A top animator for films such as the Lion King and Tarzan as a character artist, Galieote honed his skill at hand drawing and the human figure. Well versed in art history, his influences include Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo, Rubens, and the Mannerist, Jacopo Pontormo, as well as American realist painter George Bellows and other AshCan artists. Incorporating whimsical elements with modern social concerns, Galieote imbues light-hearted imagery with deeper connotations, illuminating timeless truths of the dualities of human nature.