02
Apr
2002
Steve Banks has a jovial intensity, and while he takes his art seriously, it's not too seriously. When I tried to maneuver around one painting to avoid damaging it, Banks said, "You're not going to hurt anything but yourself."
Banks, who's been back in the Quad Cities since late 2000 after a nine-year post-high-school absence, is a dynamo artist. Although he's only been producing his mixed-media paintings for three years, he's amassed a considerable body of work that is impressive in its variety, its whimsy, and its darkness. His first local one-person show, featuring more than 30 works, opens this Friday at the Peanut Gallery, 300 21st Street in Rock Island. The opening will be part of the MidCoast Fine Arts Gallery Hop! running from 5 to 10 p.m. in The District of Rock Island.
The exhibit will showcase some masks and one "branch" of the artist's work - textured, abstract mixed-media collages/paintings that look like they might be framed sections of wall. The show was put together to be thematically unified - more of an album than a greatest-hits package, as Banks puts it. That approach makes sense, but it also denies viewers the full range of the artist's interests and techniques.
Banks works with cheap materials and frequently incorporates found objects into his pieces. His aesthetic was formed, to some degree, by poverty. "You can't make something out of gold when you can't afford ramen noodles," he said of his time - mostly doing odd jobs - in Texas following college in Missouri and graduate school at Florida State University. He returned to the area, he said, to save money on rent after a relationship ended.
His attitude appears almost carefree - Banks does art because he enjoys it - and his happy-go-lucky demeanor says he's not too concerned with theory or the concept of the tortured artist. "I'm not really worried if it's a sound art object, or if it has a catharsis at the end," he said. "I don't know why this should exclusively be the domain of pain and torment."
His studio space in downtown Davenport is cramped with dozens of works. He typically has five or six pieces in process at any given time, and it sounds as if he can't stop moving. "This is the adult manifestation of what used to get me in trouble as a kid," he said.
Banks started by making masks to incorporate into photography while a graduate student in Florida, and that morphed into his current work.
At this point, the 29-year-old seems to have several distinct styles. Banks said he looks at his work as a tree with different branches, and that eventually, that tree will be full enough that viewers will be able to see a coherent whole.
For now, though, they just might see somebody looking for a coherent style. He doesn't deny it. His current artistic tree, he said, "is beyond a sapling, but I don't know that I'd let little kids climb on it yet."
Some themes recur regularly. His interest in façades can be seen not only in masks but in the way many of his works pull away layers. One piece has a seam in fabric ripped like a gaping wound to reveal a three-dimensional cardboard maze. He shows an interest in structures below the surface, as when he paints not only city skylines but also passages underneath the ground.
That's not to say that these motifs and themes are all he has working. He said that if he quit working a day job and devoted himself full-time to artwork, he has a sketchbook filled with two years of ideas. And for somebody as prolific as Banks, that's saying a lot.
Banks' show will be up at the Peanut Gallery through April 12.
Banks, who's been back in the Quad Cities since late 2000 after a nine-year post-high-school absence, is a dynamo artist. Although he's only been producing his mixed-media paintings for three years, he's amassed a considerable body of work that is impressive in its variety, its whimsy, and its darkness. His first local one-person show, featuring more than 30 works, opens this Friday at the Peanut Gallery, 300 21st Street in Rock Island. The opening will be part of the MidCoast Fine Arts Gallery Hop! running from 5 to 10 p.m. in The District of Rock Island.
The exhibit will showcase some masks and one "branch" of the artist's work - textured, abstract mixed-media collages/paintings that look like they might be framed sections of wall. The show was put together to be thematically unified - more of an album than a greatest-hits package, as Banks puts it. That approach makes sense, but it also denies viewers the full range of the artist's interests and techniques.
Banks works with cheap materials and frequently incorporates found objects into his pieces. His aesthetic was formed, to some degree, by poverty. "You can't make something out of gold when you can't afford ramen noodles," he said of his time - mostly doing odd jobs - in Texas following college in Missouri and graduate school at Florida State University. He returned to the area, he said, to save money on rent after a relationship ended.
His attitude appears almost carefree - Banks does art because he enjoys it - and his happy-go-lucky demeanor says he's not too concerned with theory or the concept of the tortured artist. "I'm not really worried if it's a sound art object, or if it has a catharsis at the end," he said. "I don't know why this should exclusively be the domain of pain and torment."
His studio space in downtown Davenport is cramped with dozens of works. He typically has five or six pieces in process at any given time, and it sounds as if he can't stop moving. "This is the adult manifestation of what used to get me in trouble as a kid," he said.
Banks started by making masks to incorporate into photography while a graduate student in Florida, and that morphed into his current work.
At this point, the 29-year-old seems to have several distinct styles. Banks said he looks at his work as a tree with different branches, and that eventually, that tree will be full enough that viewers will be able to see a coherent whole.
For now, though, they just might see somebody looking for a coherent style. He doesn't deny it. His current artistic tree, he said, "is beyond a sapling, but I don't know that I'd let little kids climb on it yet."
Some themes recur regularly. His interest in façades can be seen not only in masks but in the way many of his works pull away layers. One piece has a seam in fabric ripped like a gaping wound to reveal a three-dimensional cardboard maze. He shows an interest in structures below the surface, as when he paints not only city skylines but also passages underneath the ground.
That's not to say that these motifs and themes are all he has working. He said that if he quit working a day job and devoted himself full-time to artwork, he has a sketchbook filled with two years of ideas. And for somebody as prolific as Banks, that's saying a lot.
Banks' show will be up at the Peanut Gallery through April 12.
