TOJO Gallery in the news!

062908_IMC-final_0024.jpg, originally uploaded by Double A Design.

The recent show we had at TOJO featuring the studio artists was written up the in CAC News.
The image posted was the one printed along with the article.
Below is a transcript of the article:
"VOOM Exhibit,

TOJO Gallery,
1418 W Division St.,
June 5-30, 2009.

Furniture designer and sculptor Trevor 0'Neils "Bistro Chair," looks like something you'd find in a kitchen or outride ot the numerous fast food haunts in a city famous for them. It's like a picnic bench, but still designer enough to have in your home.

The VOOM exhibit at the TOJO Gallery (1418 W Division St.) features new work by local artists O'Neil, Mark Verwoerdt. Michael O'Briant and Aaron Miller. Their individual specialties range from furniture design to conventional painting.

This group exhibition explores the relationship between raw material, the elements, illustration, fantasy and design-forward green furniture. O'Neil's furniture piece was created using discarded materials. Constantly on die look-out for anything that can be used to mike functional furniture in a way that is environmentally responsible, O'Neil creates tables, dining collections, DJ turntables, wall sculptures and benches.

Illustrator Aaron Miller's pieces are the best of the exhibition. Miller's "Coming in Hot" is like a panel out of a post-apocalyptic graphic novel. The colorful piece features a woman firing a massive, futuristic weapon amid a backdrop of a red sky, smoke, explosions and massive tank-like vehicle. Miller's other pieces follow an almost medieval theme of winged warriors and deformed creatures existing in a time not of your own. On his website (www.aaronbmiller.com), he states that his interest in fantasy art began as a kid and he couldn't stop collecting and painting Dungeon and Dragon miniatures. Miller admits he "just loved the minis and the art from the books."

O'Briant's work shows that he is an artist who relies heavily on his memory and earlier observations. His pieces in this exhibition are images that attempt to create and capture emotions. O'Briant uses his own brand of painting methods, such as freezing and dry brushing, to achieve this.

Verwoerdt's "Bow" is an example of his focus on layering drawings and paintings with an emphasis on figurative work. Physicality, materiality and age are important components of his life-like images. Verwoerdt's work has been influenced by a deep study of classical Italian art and inspired by Robert Longo and Lucien Freud among others. Always expansive, Verwoerdt's work beckons appreciation for the physicality of his drawings. The time signatures and layers of mark-making are evident in his work.

—Anthony Hoffman"