Unreliable Narrators

Vertical Gallery is proud to present “Unreliable Narrators” featuring Max Kauffman, Jack “Nice-One” Chappel, and Troy Lovegates. The exhibition is March 4 – 25, 2017, with an opening reception on Saturday, March 4, 6:00 – 10:00 pm. “Unreliable Narrators” references the three artists having multiple meanings behind their artwork. And for us as individuals, our actions might not always reflect our voices and inner desires. Join us for this special 3-artist exhibition.

Jack “Nice-One” Chappel grew up in Chicago and earned his BFA from Columbia College Chicago in 2008. Both during school and later, his practice has centered on spontaneous pop-up public art, muralism, and relief wood sculpture. Since moving to Oakland in 2015, his personal artwork and professional skills have taken him around the world creating and installing artworks. This new collection of work is from objects, images, and materials acquired through his travels throughout California and Southeast Asia. These elements were then joined through assemblage, collage, wood working, and paint in his studio.

Max Kauffman grew up in the Midwest in Chicago and South Bend and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics, with a minor in Anthropology from Arizona State University in 2004. Now based in Denver, Max takes influence from indigenous artwork and his childhood dreams. His paintings, primarily of ink and watercolor, encompass a sense of wild chaos and a folk-art aesthetic. One starts to notice emerging structures in his work that elicit a feeling of familiarity yet, continue to keep you curious. Max has participated in solo and group shows across the United States as well as Italy, Canada and Israel. His work has been featured in Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose, Boom, Lost at E Minor, Beautiful Decay, Wallfarmers, and Supersonic Electronic, and more.

Canadian born Troy Lovegates began painting on the streets in 1988 after noticing graffiti on the buildings in Toronto that would magically appear overnight. A collector of images and experiences, he has a penchant for travel, a continuous movement, self-propelling his eyes past a static world as a way of animating his own streaming movie without much narrative. He has painted pieces and had art shows in Taipei, Tokyo, Paris, Dublin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, Dublin, Barcelona, Lima and more.

“Unreliable Narrators”
Featuring Max Kauffman, Jack “Nice-One” Chappel, and Troy Lovegates.
March 4 – 25, 2017
Opening reception on Saturday, March 4, 6:00 – 10:00 pm.