Costa Mesa, CA.- The Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion at Orange Coast College is pleased to present “Joe Forkan – The Lebowski Cycle”, on view from September 10th through October 28th. An opening reception was be held in Orange Coast College’s Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion. “The Lebowski Cycle,” which will run through October 28th, is a series of paintings using masterpieces of Western art and the 1998 Coen Brothers’ film, “The Big Lebowski,” as a theme. Doyle Arts Pavilion features “The Lebowski Cycle” series for the first time in its entirety with additional drawings and studies. The exhibit coincides with The Lebowski Fest LA on Sept. 23-24. Begun in 2006, The Lebowski Cycle is a series of paintings exploring the idea of layered narratives, using masterpieces of western art and the 1998 Coen Brothers’ film The Big Lebowski as a starting point.
Describing the cycle, Joe Forkan states: “Much of my previous work is figurative, dealing with memory and perception, and walks a line between representation and abstraction, but I struggled with the idea of making narrative paintings. Film and television have largely overtaken painting as the mediums for narrative approaches, and contemporary painters have largely focused their attentions elsewhere. Yet I have still found myself moved by paintings that depicted grand story arcs, compressing into a singular image a multitude of thoughts, ideas and emotions. And it wasn’t strictly the stories that interested me. Actually, when looking at narrative art from the Baroque era in particular, I am often more interested in the internal complexities of the images than the specifics of the story represented. The human interaction and conflicts, the formal qualities and modes of depiction give the paintings great breadth and depth and can continue to engage the viewer’s interest over time.
These were challenges I wanted to engage in my work. The formal and conceptual possibilities seemed enormous, but only if the narratives could remain mobile, and the paintings weren’t trapped in a singular reading. I began thinking about The Big Lebowski, the 1998 film by Joel and Ethan Coen. In writing the film, the Coen brothers began by constructing of a labyrinthine narrative worthy of a Raymond Chandler novel, and replaced the traditional hardboiled detective character with an aging pothead, turning a genre on its head. This gave them great storytelling possibilities, playing off of and to the conventions of the genre (as well as the conventional take on aging potheads). I’ve always loved this film for its humor, its preposterous story arc, rich visuals, and the way the entire story is played so straight by the actors. The film became a screen upon which I could project ideas from a wide range of sources and intensions. By combining narratives, themes, and titles from well-known works of western art with scenes from the film, and ideas and approaches from contemporary art, I found a rich repository of images that informed, overlapped and contradicted each other; ideas to alter, splice together, reconfigure, and run back through the language of painting. It’s an engaging process. Each painting of the original twelve is at least 72 x 40 inches, painted with oil on linen. My desire was to have the paintings read as a body of work, and I knew that the paintings would diverge stylistically if painted sequentially, so I decided to begin all twelve of the original paintings at once. There are now fourteen in progress.”
The Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion at Orange Coast College focuses on contemporary visual culture and creates dynamic programming that inspires interaction and dialogue between artists, students, scholars, and local and international communities. OCC’s on campus contemporary arts museum features eight large north-facing skylights which provide exceptional lighting and gives the building a distinct look and feel. Designed by architect Steven Ehrlich the Arts Pavilion is an epic environment with 3,400 sq feet of exhibition space in our Main Gallery and Project Room/Young Gallery, a gallery book store, vault, prep areas and administrative offices. The Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion is one of Southern California’s best exhibition spaces which also hosts special events, music event, performances, installations, films etc. and features exhibitions that highlight artists from around the globe. Through their yearly exhibitions of OCC students, professors and professional artists they develop programming and publications that introduce new and exciting artworks and concepts to the Southern California community and beyond. Visit the gallery’s website at … http://www.occartspavilion.com