Visual Elements: This artwork features a vibrant and energetic composition, with a predominance of warm colors such as reds, oranges, and yellows contrasting against the cool blues and greens of the background. The overall style is playful and whimsical, with a mixture of geometric shapes and organic forms creating a sense of movement and dynamism.
Subject Matter: The central focus of the piece appears to be a large, shaggy creature, possibly a bear or a dog, which seems to be engaged in some kind of altercation or confrontation with a group of figures, potentially representing soldiers or uniformed individuals.
Artistic Style and Technique: The artwork appears to be a collage or mixed media piece, with the use of various materials and textures creating a layered and textured surface. The artist's style is distinctive and expressive, with a sense of spontaneity and experimentation evident in the execution of the work.
Context: The historical background or the artist's intention behind this piece is not entirely clear, but the work seems to explore themes of conflict, power, and the relationship between nature and human activity, perhaps offering a commentary on the complexities of the human experience. ...
Barnaby Furnas’s work is marked by dynamic, large-scale paintings that balance chaos and control, figuration and abstraction. His compositions often depict dramatic, operatic scenes—such as battles, floods, and ecstatic rituals—where bodies and elemental forces clash in vivid bursts of color and motion. Using pigment poured and splashed across the canvas with explosive energy, Furnas constructs visceral worlds that reflect both historical violence and emotional excess. Drawing on American history, biblical stories, and pop culture, he reimagines archetypal narratives through a lens of rupture and transformation. Furnas’s process is both physical and performative, with paint treated as a material in motion—flooding, staining, and surging across surfaces. This fluidity becomes a metaphor for blood, water, or fire, turning each composition into a volatile, symbolic space. While his paintings carry the momentum of action painting, they are carefully choreographed, revealing a deep tension between spontaneity and structure. In blending mythic imagery with painterly experimentation, Furnas interrogates the spectacle of violence and the fragility of the human form. Through theatrical scale and gestural force, his work evokes a heightened emotional terrain, where narrative and abstraction bleed into each other. ...
Since 2009, François Ghebaly has presented an innovative, eclectic program of Los Angeles-based and international artists. With a history of identifying and championing diverse voices and emerging talent, the gallery’s roster has grown to include 27 artists and 2 artist estates, ranging from early career, such as Sharif Farrag and Ludovic Nkoth, to mid-career, like Christine Sun Kim, Meriem Bennani, Kelly Akashi, Farah Al Qasimi, and Genesis Belanger, to well established, including Sayre Gomez, Kathleen Ryan, Neïl Beloufa and Candice Lin as well as underground legends, like Patrick Jackson and Mike Kuchar. The gallery advances the reach of its artists’ visions by publishing exhibition catalogues and producing artist editions. Located since 2013 in a 12,000 square foot warehouse space in Downtown Los Angeles, the gallery is a mainstay of the burgeoning Arts District community, and recently expanded to New York's Lower East Side. François Ghebaly’s program demonstrates a commitment to challenging work across all media and to fostering the progressive, boundary-pushing practices of its artists. ...
