SAN FRANCISCO – Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present Wild Animal, a solo
exhibition by San Francisco-based artist Casey Gray, his third with the gallery. Utilizing
his signature process of complex masking techniques and acrylic spray paint, the
artist’s latest body of paintings, sculptures and works on paper are a meditation on the
vibrancy of life as seen through the animal kingdom.
Drawing from his experience as a new father, and the chaotic stasis of the last two
years to reconsider both subject and audience, Gray narrows his vision into a singular,
charming topic; a colorful world of dynamic animals in action. Eight highly stylized
portraits of solitary animals make up the majority of the show; Eagle, Bear, Horse, Tiger,
Pelican, Crocodile, Trout and Duck. The figures are flat, graphic and modernist, painted
with a variety of competing treatments and textures, and set amidst dreamy, gradient
backgrounds.
Gray describes his inspiration for the work, “Raising a toddler has my life overrun with
animal themes, from children’s books to toys, clothing, television, trips to the zoo. You
name it, they’re everywhere. It was a natural evolution for me to move in this direction
because animals seem to be everything I’m looking at, and simply put, I can’t separate
my life from my work.”
The exhibition is a direct extension of the artist’s recent residency at The Internet
Archive in San Francisco from 2020-2021. During his residency, Gray used the
Archives’s vast magazine cover art collection as a source for representation, specifically
focusing on the dramatic Adventure and Nature Magazine illustrations of the early 20th
century. Gray re-contextualizes the animals from the covers, instead imagining them as
plastic children’s toys, into two obsessively composed window box paintings central to
the show. In the first, a meticulously rendered feral herd of mammals, snakes and birds
intermix around a large bonsai tree with a heightened sense of alert. In the second, a
school of fish, sharks and other aquatic creatures clash with a deep sea diver in a
powerful fight for survival. Each layered still life arrangement offers a sense of
excitement, bewilderment and sentimentality for the outdoors in their theatre and
spectacle. The interactions the wildlife and their placement in space create a narrative
tension that mirrors the emotional turmoil of this day and age.
Wild Animal will be on view February 5th – 26th with an opening reception on Saturday,
February 5th from 1pm-7pm. For more information please contact gallery director
Vanessa Indies at sf@hashimotocontemporary.com.