 |
 |
 |
We are pleased to present Vessels, the first solo exhibition of paintings by Bryan LeBoeuf at 511 GALLERY.
In the life-sized painting Trois Bateaux, a young man in bathing trunks, his head bowed down and his face out-of-view and unspecific, is stepping from a sailing dinghy onto a bayou dock. His companion sits languidly on the edge of the dock, one foot dangling upon the boat. As a viewer, one is left wondering the nature of their relationship: siblings? lovers? friends?; as well as her foot’s position on the boat: steadying it against waves? tipping her male companion into the water? Just behind them rests a half-sunken wreck of a fishing boat, its small cabin jutting out of the water. In the deep background, another fishing vessel moves along, glistening under hazy skies reflecting upon the water. This would seem to be a simple story, a freeze-frame of a moment on a summer's day in the South: it might be happening on any dock at any time, a similar configuration of two people, three boats, a dock, trees, water, and sunlight. But LeBoeuf's narrative retains an open-ended and disturbing sense. One doesn't really know the beginning, middle, or end of this scene.
The virtual power of LeBoeuf's visual thinking is this ability to depict both the so-called real, or factual, world and the emotional underbelly of the visual world simultaneously. The vessels in these paintings may be watercraft, other types of containers, human beings-as-containers, or even physical features that 'hold' a stance or a look. They carry the meanings of LeBoeuf's narratives, but, in the end, leave an ambiguity that provides the ultimate intriguing quality of the work.
