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Clark Derbes, Radial, 15 x 20" (2016)

Woodcut

clarkgallery.com

CLARK DERBES was born in New Orleans, LA and raised in Baton Rouge. Derbes was exposed at an early age to the vernacular craft arts of the south, including; vibrantly painted carvings, quilts, and the beaded pageantry of Mardi Gras. These influences, along with the road-side chainsaw carvings witnessed in Vermont, collided with his practice of ab-ex geometric painting. His work employs a vocabulary of forms & shapes adapted from familiar architectures translated into sculptures of carved wood finished with a variety of complex patina processes or vivid color, sometimes in combination and all driven by his straightforwardness and skill. His current body of carved and poly-chromed wood sculpture are a synthesis of these influences; a ‘gumbo’ of American art history stirred with the wooden spoon of folk tradition. Derbes earned a BFA at Louisiana State University and exhibits extensively throughout the US. He currently lives and works in Vermont with his wife, artist Wylie Sofia Garcia, and their two children.

                                                                                                                           --THE SCHOOLHOUSE GALLERY

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