Robert Dean Stockwell to premier The Spagyric Eye at RB Ravens Gallery

Well known actor Robert Dean Stockwell's one-man art show will be his first major solo exhibition. The Spagyric Eye, a collection of more than 40 new works will open September 3rd at the RB Ravens Gallery.

Taos, NM (PRWEB) July 15, 2004 -- The Spagyric Eye, a collection of more than 40 new works by noted artist/actor Robert Dean Stockwell will open September 3rd at the RB Ravens Gallery. Better known as an actor in movies like Long Days Journey Into Night and Blue Velvet, Mr. Stockwell has been an artist since the mid-1950s. Although his work has been featured at the Whitney Museum in New York, The Smithsonian in Washington DC and numerous private collections around the country, this will be Mr. Stockwells first large exhibition. The shows title, The Spagyric Eye is derived from Greek and is an alchemists term meaning to take apart and reassemble.

Walter Hopps, noted curator and Founding Director of the Menil Collection in Houston had a preview of the show. He writes: Dean Stockwells collage works are superb. The compositions are varied, inventive and complex, and generally take on a mysterious narrative character. His collages have a degree of intensity, both in composition and color, rarely seen in the work of his contemporaries."

The coming out show as a visual artist is an extremely exciting thing for me as a gallery owner" says Ray Trotter, owner of RB Ravens. I see a lot of new work that is so repetitive; this is not the first time that collages have been done, but at this level its a first"

RB Ravens Gallery is one of the oldest & foremost authorities in the nation on classic Navajo textiles, American Indian art and pottery, and Kachina Dolls. The Gallery also focuses on contemporary works by nationally recognized artists.                                                                                                

The Spagyric Eye opens September 3rd and will run through October 31st, 2004. On September 3rd, there will be an opening reception from 6pm to 9pm with the artist.

Artist Profile: Robert Dean Stockwell
Robert Dean Stockwell was born in North Hollywood, California and started acting on Broadway at age seven. He made his screen debut at age nine in Anchors Aweigh (1945) and continued to perform with memorable roles in movies like Compulsion (1958), Sons and Lovers (1960), and portraying Eugene O'Neill in Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). One of his most famous roles was that of the effeminate and ruthless sleaze, Ben, in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986).

Stockwell began as an artist in 1956 when he met his friend and mentor Wallace Berman. Berman was a full-time artist and an active figure in the art worlds of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Many art historians consider him to be the 'father' of the California assemblage movement and he introduced Mr. Stockwell to collage. (Printed images, often from magazines and newspapers, mounted in collage fashion onto a flat surface) Mr. Stockwell embraced this medium and has progressively developed a unique style, which has been described as a marriage of DADA and surrealism. He feels that his art helps define a different way of expressing himself, one that in many ways is superior to acting.

Noted photographer Ralph Gibson writes of Stockwells work: Stockwell has progressively pushed his palette through the years eventually arriving at the use of highly saturated day-glow tonalities which in turn evoke psychedelic avenues of thought and response...their beauty informs and enhances our life. Art triumphs over reality."

Mr. Stockwells new show, The Spagyric Eye, a collection of more than 40 new works, will open September 4 at the RB Ravens Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. Although his work has been featured at the Whitney Museum in New York, The Smithsonian in Washington DC and numerous private collections around the country, this will be Mr. Stockwells first large solo exhibition. The coming out show as a visual artist is an extremely exciting thing for me as a gallery owner" says Ray Trotter, owner of RB Ravens. I see a lot of new work that is so repetitive; this is not the first time that collages have been done, but at this level its a first"

The shows title, The Spagyric Eye is derived from Greek and is an alchemists term meaning to take apart and reassemble.

Walter Hopps, noted curator and Founding Director of the Menil Collection in Houston had a preview of the show. He writes: Dean Stockwells collage works are superb. The compositions are varied, inventive and complex, and generally take on a mysterious narrative character. His collages have a degree of intensity, both in composition and color, rarely seen in the work of his contemporaries."

Dazzling," is how sculptor Ron Cooper described the works to be included in The Spagyric Eye when he had a chance to review them recently. The collages were seamless and cosmic, sometimes humorous, always intriguing and beautiful. What a surprise that this huge, comprehensive body of work had incubated all this time and was produced in an intense, focused burst in the last two years."

For further information:
· Robert Dean Stockwell is available for interviews. Contact: Randy Phillips at 817-926-5107 or 817-228-4640 (mobile)
· Examples of works to be included in The Spagyric Eye are available on the website: www.rbravens.com