Painter Puts Old Methods to Use in His Series of Still-Life Artworks - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - by Kevin Costello - 10/13/06
David Piurek will be showing a new series of more than a dozen still life paintings at Greene Contemporary during the month of October. An opening will preview the exhibition with a reception on Friday, October 6 from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibition will continue Saturday October 7 through Tuesday October 31. The gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 10 to 6 and by appointment.
The new works were inspired by the tradition of Dutch Still Life painting and in particular a work by Willem van der Ast that hangs at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art where Piurek works days as a conservation technician. (He was responsible for much of the work on the restored Asolo Theatre.) In his new Still Life series Piurek has included many shells from his collection as well as other objects and creatures that have entered his life.
Piurek grew up in Amsterdam, New York and has been living in Sarasota since 1995, when he decided to attend Ringling School of Art & Design. Early in his career he was more interested in drawing than painting and even now his work has a powerful linear quality to it. It was during a trip to Paris, while in college that Piurek was convinced he had to start painting. While motivated by the "old masters" Piurek takes their ideas to a new level of contemporary sophistication. His previous series about the "Tower of Babel" was inspired by a painting of the same name by Pieter Breughel. Work from that series included collage and passages of silver leaf.
In making art, Piurek strives to embrace the potential of any new technology that is available to him. However, everything about his canvases is hand-made. The impact of the "old masters'" methods on his process is profound. He makes his gesso, mixes his own paint from natural materials and sometimes he gives the paintings a patina of age by burnishing the surface with cotton. The canvas can look distressed or aged when it is less than two months old. Piurek gives great attention to the craft of his work. In this way, he insures that his contributions to the history of art will survive alongside examples of the "masters" he considers his teachers.