A Remarkable Brooklyn Artist, Performer, and Beekeeper Breaks out in His Solo Exhibit, "Alive on the Inside" at Red Hook's Diesel Gallery

Alive on the Inside," a solo exhibit of artist Richard Eagans most dynamic group of works to date, will open June 3 at the Diesel Gallery in Red Hook. This body of work is arguably his most refined and well-articulated to date. It features powerful and pleasingly simple aluminum boxes joined at their interfaces by multilayered shards of painted wood that, like the artist who created them, defy elementary interpretations.

(PRWEB) May 7, 2005 -- Alive on the Inside," a solo exhibit of artist Richard Eagans most dynamic group of works to date, will open Friday, June 3, 6:30pm, at the Diesel Gallery in Red Hook. The pieces featured in the show are powerful and pleasingly simple in design, consisting of two, and sometimes three, finely finished aluminum boxes, joined at their interfaces by multilayered shards of painted wood.

Initially, Mr. Eagans works evoke a mental image of, perhaps, blades of grass poking up through the seams of a sidewalk. But stand for a few moments in contemplation and slowly, but most assuredly, understanding will crackle into consciousness.

Mr. Eagan describes the decades long process that led to what is arguably his most refined, most thoughtful and well-articulated body of work to date. I had been running a small woodworking shop through the 70s when, in 1978, I had a series of compelling dreams about my late grandfather leading me to Coney Island. It may sound banal, but I literally 'followed my dream and WENT to Coney Island, where I became involved with a group of like-minded artists and crazies and eventually formed the non-profit Coney Island Hysterical Society."

It was in in the mid-80s that Mr. Eagan created a series of the Coney Island buildings that he had loved as a child and that were "either gone or disappearing." He also began a series of target and bulls-eye paintings. I had the notion back then of making bulls-eyes with rough, broken wood bursting from the center of the target through the picture plane," explained Mr. Eagan. His work came to a halt, however, in 1987, when he turned his attention to serious family matters. He limited himself to his woodworking in the years that followed, when in the mid-'90's, as he puts it, I remembered that I was an artist, and began feeling like one again."

Mr Eagans dormant "burst" target idea was revived in 2004, coinciding with his allowing his crossdressing alter-ego, Kay Sera, to occupy her spectacular and beloved self. In very important ways, Kay allowed me to shed whatever inhibitions were keeping my light under a barrel." A breakthrough series of small canvasses with wood shards resulted and all sold within weeks. The concept evolved into the more elegant and focused aluminum block and wood shard pieces featured in the current show.

Today, Mr. Eagan produces his work in Brooklyn and his Schoharie County shop. It is just outside his upstate studio that one will find evidence of yet another of Mr Eagans more fascinating pursuits: his carefully-tended beehives. I've been bottling my honey for the past two seasons, and selling "Kay Sera's Zippy Bee Honey," with a picture of the Lovely Kay Sera right on the label." Twenty percent of the net proceeds from his honey go to designated charities Doctors Without Borders and Heifer International.

At some point, Mr Eagan plans to expand into large-scale projects, applying his shattered wood shards and architectural elements to the sides of buildings or to interior spaces, where more of the public has access to them. One of the essential functions of art is to allow people to imagine and embrace possibilities outside their experience. We are here to help nudge, or sometimes burst, open the doors of perception, to create and demonstrate our dreams, to live them out. It is a great gift to be able to come into one's power in this lifetime. I very much feel like I am the work I do. And I'm incredibly happy and very proud of it."

To be able to express the ineffable through art. To bring us to the very place that is, at once, what makes each of us unique and what unites us. This is big. Mr. Eagan has got it. And he is giving it back.

Alive on the Inside" opens on Friday, June 3, 6:30-9pm, at the Diesel Gallery at 242 Van Brunt St. in Red Hook, accompanied by director Stuart Nicholsons de rigueur live music, libations, and hors d'oeuvres. The show runs through June 24. Gallery hours are Sat, Sun 2-5pm or by appt.

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