New York born Oliver Vernon has just completed his largest mural to date, forming part of the 5th edition of Kirk Gallery’s “Out in the Open” mural project.
Although Oliver arrived in Aalborg with a huge, carefully printed out sketch: he found that translating this vision from paper onto such a sizeable wall was quite a daunting prospect in terms of replicating the essence, spontaneity and movement of the piece. Oliver got to grips with this challenge by putting in solid 12 hour days over 2 weeks. His distinctive style is so rich in detail, color, form, energy, and architecture – and each of his paintings has its own set of rules, or rather rules that are constantly bent and broken. Oliver draws upon an incredibly varied pool of influences in his work: from abstract expressionism and post-pop surrealism, to the polished finish of figurative realism.
Oliver’s color palette contrasts so perfectly with not only the building but the surrounding neighborhood and greenery. From a biased standpoint, I must admit that this piece is undoubtedly one of my firm 2019 favorites!
“Getting started was quite a challenge due to the enormous size of the wall and exactly how to approach such a large scale painting. To start out with I had the safety net of making a grid and just following the sketch and picking out the exact colors I wanted at the paint store. But at the end I ended up just dipping the brush in the large buckets of paint and mixing the colors directly on the wall itself, which made it possible to work much more freely, adding new composition, color and structures. At the same time it made it much easier to add the right movement and energy into the mural. Getting to that point was a personal victory for me, finding out how to paint large scale in a completely different way, ending up with a more loose expression that I love. The quality of these sections add so much to the feeling of the pieces of organic flowing bits of information next to all the graphic parts. This really tied it all together. It just took a while for me to get there. I’ve had a fantastic response from all the people walking by. People sharing their positive thoughts and encouraging comments. I am so happy that the mural now is something for everybody on the streets to get joy from and not only the few in the museums. It’s been a great adventure and an exciting challenge”
The artist has exhibited his work in cities all across the United States including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, and Chicago, and has also shown in London and Toronto. His work is part of numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He lives and works in Grass Valley, California.
