In Naugahyde Romance (remember Naugahyde?), a Doberman looks out the window at a catastrophic vehicle crash with fire, smoke and tires flying through the air. It sits on a faux cow hide Naugahyde sofa to get a better view. Two nude woman flank the Doberman, one having enjoyed time in the sun, the other not. Oblivious to it all, another Doberman peers over the back of the sofa only having eyes for its companion.
Ken Nevadomi (b. 1939), Caravaggio was Here, 2007. Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 76 in.
In Caravaggio was Here, nude, female Matissian dancers cavort atop a bar while nude male Francis Bacon-like patrons sway to the music—although one man ponders a nude woman escaping through a rear door. In Dancing on the Moon (Day), a nude male plays a grand piano on the surface of the moon while another dances by. The piano is filled with detritus—a radio, a toaster, perhaps a portrait bust and crying baby. Perhaps the pianist is hoping to ring something beautiful out of the chaos.
Ken Nevadomi (b. 1939), Dancing on the Moon (Day), 1991. Acrylic on canvas, 55 x 72 in.
Ken Nevadomi (b. 1939), Naugahyde Romance, 1980. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60 in.
The artist is Ken Nevadomi, professor emeritus at Cleveland State University and recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Arts Prize in 1988. In a biography, at the time of his winning the prize, the committee wrote, “Critics suggest that his work reflects social commentary, but Nevadomi refers to it instead as ‘social expressionism.’ The audience often sees in his enigmatic subject matter a sometimes frightening, sometimes humorous reflection on the human condition that conveys man’s fragile place in a turbulent and inexplicable society.”
Nevadomi is loath to comment on his paintings, but in a 30-year-old artist statement he wrote, “My painting has a lot to do with what I am thinking about—views that I may not even be aware of. I am going in a number of directions, and one thing I am doing is not consciously thinking about it. My feeling is that you don’t choose your ideas, your ideas choose you…The viewer has to figure it out. As a figurative artist, I focus on the figure, and the rest develops in ways I can’t predict.”
WOLFS Gallery in Cleveland now represents the artist and has mounted its first exhibition of his work, opening October 14 and running through December 30. Gallery director, Michael Wolf, notes, “Hiding in plain sight, Ken Nevadomi (b. 1939) is a blue-collar artist from the gritty side of Cleveland with remarkable ability as a painter, and the bubbling, fertile mind of a gifted storyteller.”
Ken Nevadomi (b. 1939), Woman with Kimono, 1995. Acrylic on canvas, 43 x 35¾ in.
Art historical references, exuberant, colorful painting and mystery, combine in works that are worthy of this reintroduction and exploration of what Cleveland Museum of Art curator William H. Robinson describes as “a painful probing of hidden realities, topics avoided in normal discourse, subjects not rigidly defined or easily explained by rational analysis.”
Nevadomi says, “I’d like to think that these works have something to do with our lives but damned if I can figure out what that might be. I think the world is more bizarre than my paintings will ever be.” —
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