“LIKE WOLVES” duo exhibition
Exhibition runs from Jan 11th - Feb 15, 2025Court Tree Collective is proud to present LIKE WOLVES featuring Australian painter Saxon Quinn and Brooklyn based painter John Vitale. Both represent a new breed of abstract painters pushing their DIY instincts into newfound territories. Like flowing rivers they navigate from the energy of their great source. Not planned or charted, but precise in delivery. Wild and unhinged, yet focused and consistent. Passion and dedication encompasses the virtue in each gesture and stroke. We are excited to share this energy with our community.
PREVIEW THE COLLECTION ︎
SAXON JJ QUINN is a self-taught mixed media artist interested in the rough, the worn and the resilient. Born in country Victoria, Saxon spent his childhood surrounded by creativity. His artist mother tied a basket to the ceiling of her studio where, as a baby, he would swing while she worked. As he grew older, he began sketching, painting and experimenting with clay, at times accidentally defacing her works in the process.
After studying Communication Design and building his career in Melbourne, Saxon moved to New York City, immersing himself in the city and its urban patina.The beauty he found in the aged and weathered elements were cemented as the foundation of his creative work, and painting became the outlet.
Now, from his home in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Saxon primarily uses canvas, graphite and paint, layering hues, symbols and textures to create works that sway from the intentional to the unrestrained, the minimalist to the uninhibited. Each piece bears meaningful motifs alongside elements of mischievous humour, with each mark representing an aspect of his life. These marks are arranged precisely to induce a sensory effect, where a calming constellation can be found in a world of perceived chaos.
JOHN VITALE was born 1979. He is a largely self-taught abstract painter, based in brooklyn, ny, where he lives with his partner and works in his studio in sunset park. He has exhibited in Taiwan, up and down the west coast, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and New York City. His work is in public and private collections in many parts of the world.
Vitale’s paintings are explorations of the human experience that blend organic shapes, lines, plateaus, and rich color palettes into captivating visual narratives. What unfolds from his investigations are isolated experiments, each embodying textured negative space. He is meticulous in his intention; after weeks of unresolved work, a single minor mark- or the erasure of one- a small color change or shift in a shape’s boundary can realize the finality of a painting. Using a combination of acrylic, housepaint, enamels, pencils, canvas scrap, and oil sticks to create his works, Vitale layers materials to create tangible archives of time and experience.
Vitale’s work aims to deconstruct and compartmentalize the chaos that imbues society daily. He views each painting as a learning experience- an exploration of the environment that encompasses him. A meditation on complex human problems, and a search for answers to these conundrums. This process is how he learns to make sense of the incessant inventory of information that one must ingest.
