Just Let Me Be

About

JUST LET ME BE seeks to bring a new audience to archived pieces from our collection, ones that have been resting peacefully in storage but in light of current events, have taken on a new meaning and context in regards to American identity. Often the biographical works of Teuton and Fleisher deal with bouts of Americana and nostalgia.

Fred Fleisher is an American painter, sculptor and illustrator best known for his sculptures crafted from reconfigured vintage stuffed animals and action figures. Fleisher combines a variety of themes and genres to create his unique artworks, many of which take on the darker aspects of Americana and the post-war memory. Drawing heavily on the imagery of an era where generation-X dreamed of a better tomorrow, Fleisher’s works are often therapeutic in practice, helping the artist to make sense of what it means to live under a hyper-capitalist regime.

In his artistic practice, Fleisher uses contemporary and vintage images and objects that allow him to address trends and vibes in everyday popular culture and western society at large. Using a combination of metaphysical and psychological continuities, Fleisher invites his viewers into a skewed dream world, with figures they might recall fondly from childhood. However, by placing such famous characters within darker and more distorted situations Fleisher aims to bring new light onto subjects one might have missed in each original story. By altering these figures beyond recognition the artist creates a new dialogue in the idea of initial perceptions and nostalgic comfort.

American multidisciplinary artist Jeffrey Teuton’s conceptual paintings are a manifestation of a long curated collection of eras, notes, stories and myths the artist has encountered across his life. Heavily biographical in practice, his works often share with the viewer stories of personal struggle and a few happier experiences that have intercepted into his timeline as an artist. As a counterbalance to the heaviness of the subject matter, Teuton uses abstract and minimal color block painting as his medium.

Teuton likens his highly personal practice to that of a storyteller. Each work is an exercise in the artist’s personal experience within the contemporary condition, one where he ponders the cognitive, the logical and the mundane parts of the human experience. By stripping down to a minimal use of color, shape and spatial relations, all that remains are short poetics, as is the artist’s intention.