PORTLAND — Aucocisco Galleries will feature artwork by Tom Burckhardt and Christopher Keister from Nov. 6-28, with a First Friday Art Walk artists’ reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6.

Aucocisco is honored to announce “Book Covers,” the first Maine showing of painter and sculptor Tom Burckhardt’s work in more than a decade and a half. Burckhardt may have been born in New York,
but his Maine roots run deep. A 1986 graduate of the Skowhegan School
of Painting and Sculpture, Burckhardt now splits his time between his
home in New York City and a home in Searsmont.

Showing simultaneously with Burckhardt, Aucocisco will feature a series of minimalist circle paintings by Peaks Island-based artist Christopher Keister entitled “Cosmic Lollipop.” Like Burckhardt, Keister also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Keister’s entrancing paintings will create a conversation between the formal and informal aspects of his and Burckhardt’s work.

For Burckhardt, “Book Covers” marks a return of sorts to painting. Most recently, his shows in New York City have played at mixing the two-dimensional with three-dimensional components: Burckhardt’s 2006 show “Full Stop” found the artist working exclusively with cardboard and black paint to create full-scale replicas of an artist’s studio. In 2008, Burckhardt continued to explore this theme with “Slump,” pairing his paintings with meticulously built three-dimensional sculptural vignettes of items commonly found in an artists’ studio, such as paint cans, crates and ladders.

At the time, Burckhardt explained these sculptural excursions as a way to “reignite my love of the act of painting.” With “Book Covers,” Burckhardt’s passion for painting appears fully ablaze. The thirteen vibrant paintings in the series manage to feel both playful and considered. Each acrylic and colored pencil piece is executed on the inside of actual reclaimed book cover. Burckhardt’s gift for colliding representational components with purely graphic elements is in peak form and, as usual, the work eludes any easy pigeonholing — we only see glimpses of influence: swirls from Surrealism, exaggerated Pop Art dots and stripes, and nods to the New York School and to the minimalists. Ripe with references to artist’s palettes and blank canvases, “Book Covers” feels like Burckhardt’s love letters to the act of painting.

The recipient of many awards, Burckhardt has twice received grants from the Pollack-Krasner Foundatin, and was just recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is the son of revered artists Yvonne Jacquette and Rudy Burckhardt.

Keister continues to gain attention and significant praise for his hypnotic paintings. He has become a regular, stalwart contributor to two of Maine’s most praised exhibitions: the Portland Museum of Art Biennial (2003, 2007), and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art Juried Biennial Exhibition (2004, 2008).

The series “Cosmic Lollipop” reflects the influence that reading science fiction literature has had on Keister over the past year. “The information gathered from such written material came to act as an outline for the series,” says the artist. “I view the drawings as maps and representations of concepts that I encountered in the texts.”

In addition to “Cosmic Lollipop,” Keister is also currently appearing in a successful group installation, “Point of Connection,” in the North Dam in Biddeford; the project was made possible by the Maine Arts Commission.

Aucocisco Galleries, located at 89 Exchange St., is open Tuesday
through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment. For more
information, call (207) 775-2222 or email [email protected].