Falk’s images are evokative of foggy days.

By Shanece Brent, Staff Writer

Published in print Jan 21, 2015

UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art museum has been featuring visiting artists since 1982, and Over 80 artists’ works have been featured since the program began. Saturday, January 17, a new exhibit of the series was opened to the public featuring the work of artist Craig Hood. Located on the first floor of the Museum, the in the Louise D. And Herbert S. Falk, Sr. Gallery, thirteen of Hood’s paintings are featured.

Like photographs taken through a blurred lens, Hood’s work has a surreal quality to it. The paintings and drawings featured feel as if they were torn out a waking dream, one can grasp the fragments that may have composed a picture, but the message is steeped in fog. Each of Hood’s paintings on the gallery are submerged in that dream-like fog, until one looks closer and discovers the images underneath. Each image, though nearly all include people have an air of abandonment or displacement. Each painting seems to harbor a sense of isolation and distance. Everything is covered in a deep, rich fog that seems almost malleable, as if the viewer could only reach into the portrait and clear it. This ever-present haze gives the works a since of mystery. In Visiting Graves (2012 oil on canvas), the figures of a man and woman in formal wear standing in front of tombstones, a mausoleum off to the right, in a canyon.

There are two versions of Hood’s art titled “Where the Air is Pure”, one done in oil on canvas, and the other done in Graphite on paper. Both of these paintings, though entirely the same in subject, take on a different feel depending on the medium. The subjects are a little easier to make out in oil painting; the faceless figure of a man staring back at the viewer is almost haunting in the deep blue haze. Even “Serenade at Kings Point” (2012 oil on canvas) has a feeling of aloneness despite the three figures in the picture. The fogginess of Hood’s work encourages viewers to look closer, to squint into the mist and decipher the images underneath. “A Man and A Boy (Fishermen)” (graphite on paper) shows a pair, maybe father and son, uncle and nephew, fishing, or preparing go do so in a nearby lake. “Living on the River” (2011, graphite on paper) shows a scene. An old building topped with ridged tin, a boat near the river, a figure playing with a dog. “A Place To Sleep” (2013, graphite on paper) shows a ramshackle dwelling near a dock, three men. These images seem to paint a picture of poverty, and tell a story of men in suits and hats making a living along the river as best they can. 

Property of Old Jones (2013, graphite on paper) shows a living area strewn with litter, a broken fence, a flagpole near the doc and a boat on the horizon. Hallowed Ground (2012, graphite on paper) has the same feeling of murky darkness. Shepard’s Dream (2009, oil on canvas) features no sheep only man, sitting in front of squat building on the lakeside, a lonely chair to the right of the image. Gone From Here (2012, oil on canvas,) features a man sitting on a dock, a home and a box behind him.

The exhibit will run through to April 19, 2015, and Hood will give an Artist gallery talk on Wednesday, February 11, at 4 p.m., open to UNCG faculty, staff, and students only. Then on Thursday, February 12, Hood will give a lecture that is open to the public.