Auburn University's Department of Art presents a new exhibition of
paintings, drawings and prints by Philadelphia artist Mike Geno. The
exhibition will be on view in Biggin Gallery through June 18.
Mike Geno lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. He has exhibited his
work throughout the U.S. and internationally. Recent exhibitions
include: "Day Job: Work Influencing Work," Troy, NY, "Product:
Comments on Consumer Culture," Athens Institute for Contemporary Art,
Athens, GA, and "Food Chain" an international print exhibition,
Printmaking Council of New Jersey. He currently teaches at
Philadelphia's University of the Arts and Moore College of Art and Design.

"Still" is a culmination of paintings, drawings and prints that
explore the still life format on a number of levels. The exhibition
presents five series that include pastel drawings of culinary staples
of Philadelphia (the Hoagie and Pretzel,) eight larger than life
charcoal drawings of tools, 18 textural oil paintings of meat cuts
accompanied by a one-off edition of unconventional meat prints, and a
series depicting seemingly unrelated painted objects.

"The tools series was inspired as a portrait or even a memorial of a
man I never met," says Geno who had recently been invited to salvage
what he could from the house of a friend's long-passed great uncle,
Stanley Megio. "I sifted through the remains of the bounty of quirky
man-made objects, novelties and countless tools," explains Geno. "As
I started organizing the tools on the floor of my studio to inventory my
inheritance I discovered that I was grouping the tools; I was
alchemizing into art this man's bric-a-brac."

A series of meat paintings and prints taps into Geno's past work
experience as a supermarket meat-cutter. "I was concentrating on the
sensuality and seductiveness of meat," he explains. "As an
artist/meat-cutter I recognized the aesthetic values in a wide range of
meat and the need for meat to be abstracted in order for it to be
consumed. It was natural for me to objectify meat and approach it with
the same focus as my other still life objects."

As Geno created his series of meat paintings he simultaneously
collected a series of unique meat prints from the still life subjects.
"The result was a series of beautiful and delicate records of the
flesh in its own blood," explains Geno. "These prints relate
directly to my study of cuts of raw meat as iconic symbols of consumer
product and its enticing and sensuous nature."

With the object series Geno is interested in creating a still life with
which a viewer feels more inclined to interact. According to Geno, the
still life is typically an arrangement of inanimate objects grouped
together in a single composition. In the traditional still life
composition the placement of objects determines the importance of one
over another creating a hierarchy that is fixed, therefore, restricting
the way in which it can be read by a viewer.

"The installation of a group of 16 painted, isolated objects leads
open the possibility of re-ordering, recomposing, and ultimately
determining the meaning," claims Geno. "The meaning will vary
according to each individual's understanding of the objects creating a
contemporary social context for the objects." The generic "thank
you" bag is one of Geno's depicted objects. Like the meat paintings,
the feeling of the paint and brushwork is pronounced, surpassing the
illusion of reality.

"Still: contemporary still life collections by Mike Geno" runs
through May to June 18 in Biggin Gallery, 101 Biggin Hall. Gallery hours
are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) or by appointment. For more
information contact Barb Bondy, Exhibitions and Lectures Coordinator,
Department of Art, 334-844-3483 or bondybj@auburn.edu.
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In Brief

"Still: contemporary still life collections by Mike Geno"
Painting, drawings and prints.
May 20 to June 18
Biggin Gallery
101 Biggin Hall
Auburn University
Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4 pm
For more information call 844-4373 or visit the artist's website at
mikegeno.com