From bright urban landscapes to dystopic wastelands, modern suburbs to ruined homesteads, Mike Shankman’s paintings explore cycles of collapse and regeneration, entropy and development.
As part of this show, Shankman explores the innards of newly demolished interior spaces. {These are sites the artist engages with regularly as part of his day job as a Project Manager for high-end residential construction company.}
Mike Shankman has shown his work nationally and internationally, including 2010 shows at the Riverside Art Museum and Joshua Tree National Park, where he was Artist-in-Residence. His work has been featured in Harper’s Magazine, Guernica Magazine, Southwest Art, and New American Paintings.
Lexis Rubenis’ art aesthetic is a mix of surrealism and abstract art with an allure that is often compared to staring into a dream or a magnificent skyline of city. Having grown up within the San Francisco Bay Area street art scene in the late 1990’s, Lexis’ initially only practiced in this style before moving into his current approach of making his art forms. Employed more than a decade at several art specialty shops, he progressed his color techniques with acrylic paints and inks and honed his daringly unique style further. Despite senior criticism from intensely conservative areas, he continued producing according to his ‘new world’ vision and focused on his future demographic. This would later yield greater success in the long run for him. The style that he calls “subconscious imagery,” works off the idea to make entirely new shapes, which often end up containing appearances of untraceable memories.
Having studied the street of its graffiti and having completed various fine art classes at the San Francisco Academy of Art, his skill as a visual artist has sharpened but for the most part his own techniques are kept secret. Lexis has exhibited his work in various galleries and venues in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Berlin.