Familiarity Breeds Context at DCAC’s Visionary First Show of 2000
Washington, D.C., DCAC hosts The Big Bash to celebrate its first show of the new year, “Cash and Carry,” featuring two intrepid artists, Evan Berodt and Treiops Treyfid. “What memoirs are to books, portraits are to paintings,” says artist Evan Berodt of his work–a series of portraits of friends–which shows an overwhelming feeling of mystery behind the familiarity. Berodt’s ability to replicate along with intimate knowledge of his subjects, give the work a strong traditional look, but the penetrating glow of his lighting is derived, he says, from “the sound of heavy distorted guitars and the look of rooms lit by the glow of television.”
Treyfid, too, uses images whose power is derived from recognition/familiarity, but he says his works can be classed under the heading “Abstract Repressionism.” Fears, sexual desires, repressed anger and frustration are the source of his imagery. Illustrated by dense, knotted, and ambiguous shapes, Treyfid’s canvases are crammed with bubbling waves of color, tiny beings, alien geometric planes, and convoluted balls of energy. Brought together by curators Michael Clark and Felicity Hogan of the Museum of Contemporary Art, “Cash and Carry” runs from January 28 to March 5 at Adams Morgan’s DCAC, 18th Street, NW.
DCAC hosted its first opening of the year, “Cash and Carry, Jan. 28.” Undeterred by arctic temperatures and slippery sidewalks, the young and hip flocked to the Adams-Morgan art space at 2438 18th St. NW to check out the work of two D.C. artists (one of whom recently relocated to Los Angeles).
Artists Evan Berodt, 26, and Treiops Treyfid, 32, forged their creative resources to produce an energized and polished show, curated by Michael Clark and Felicity Hogan of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Berodt, a graphic designer, has produced seven oil portraits of his friends created from computer-scanned photographs. Berodt explains, “I try to achieve a certain accuracy. I like working from the flat image of a photo because I can create a feeling of density and roughness.” Berodt succeeds in his mission to create a “feeling of mystery behind the familiarity.” One has an eery sense of recognition looking at the strangers’ faces. It’s like peeking at the photos of someone you don’t know. Employing dark backgrounds infused with light, Berodt evokes the stark one-dimensional attributes of a photograph within the subtle layers of his portraits.
Treyfid’s work, inspired by his new West Coast surroundings, is aggressive and unabashedly convoluted. Labeled “Abstract Repressionism,” the oil paintings are a contrast in vivid colors and dark imagery. Treyfid, a graduate of the Corcoran School of Art and a graphic artist, says that the style of his work – mainly his use of bright colors – has drastically changed with his address. Every inch of the canvas in his recent work is filled with a wild jumble of perplexing shapes, sexual innuendoes and geometric planes – all injected with electrifying hues. Treyfid says that “fear, sexual desires, repressed anger and frustration are the source of his imagery.” Provocative, fresh and, well, a little weird, Treyfid deftly conveys this cacophony of ideas.