Travis Smith
Travis Smith was never formerly trained in art practice, yet he has been infinitely attracted to painting and drawing. In his own words, his work is "adorably dark," as many of his cartoonish elements portray senses of morbidity and darkness. Smith was born in Illinois and now lives and works in Atlanta, GA.
Smith has said that he doodles constantly, drawing influence from various art forms including tattooing, graffiti, pop art, movies, photography, comics, music and architecture. In his spare time away from his art, he works at his day job as a software developer, undoubtedly drawing inspiration from his work in that field as well.
Smith's intrigue with technology and science led to his career as a computer programmer and an artist who depicts images of man-made objects such as vehicles, machines, buildings, and robots in much of his work. Smith has admitted that through the recurrence of robots in his work, he is utilizing them to convey emotions through to indifferent countenance of robots. The majority of the time, Smith uses acrylic and spray paint as his chosen medium, but he will use any media available to achieve the looks he wants.
Most recently, Smith has been experimenting with assemblages of wood and other materials such as old computer disks. He talks about these assemblages as being an interesting process to work on smaller pieces and then combine those components into larger works. Smith physically combines small paintings of various human emotions, ideas, and objects that form a combine that audiences can light heartedly enjoy viewing though the cartoonish aspects in the works and experience real emotions and connections with the works through the reliability of the images. Through these works, Smith creates something he enjoys making and he hopes others enjoy viewing.
Michael Klapthor has been a working and exhibiting artist in Georgia for the past ten years. He is currently enrolled in Callanwolde's clay studio assistantship program, teaching classes and creating sculptures.
Klapthor mainly works in sculpture, creating what he dubs as whimsical, anthropomorphic sculptures. His works create stories about human nature. He makes these statements regarding human nature through the creation of sculptures depicting animals and their belongings. The animal and the material item accompanying it have to balance against each other, similar to the way we, as living in a modern society, must strive to find balance between basic instincts such as desire to protect or to own something to run free or to establish ties.
In a recent series of sculptures, Klapthor explores the notion of being tied or weighed down by material objects. The animals created are sluggish and their bodies look worn and tired, angry, or serene. Klapthor clearly uses the animals to portray human emotions. The object that rests on top of the animal resembles a human's house or building that a person might use or occupy. Klapthor's sculptures show the burden of modern living, materiality, and society and how that burden weighs down on the temperament of a being, whether it be an animal or a person.
Runs through September 22
