Dave Kinsey: Ostentatious Oasis · solo exhibition opens March 15

TJEBBE BEEKMAN x DAVE KINSEY FEBRUARY 2025

TB: I know your sculptures and paintings, and I see you often posting photographs on your social media. How do you see yourself, do you consider yourself more a sculptor or a painter, and how do these disciplines relate to each other? Do they influence one another?

DK: I primarily see myself as a painter and it always seems to be my go to in the end, but I don’t think of my work as confined to just one discipline. Sculpture, my relief works and photography allow me to explore spatial and material concerns that, in turn, influence my approach to painting. My paintings often have a sense of depth and form that might come from thinking sculpturally, while my sculptures sometimes embody the organic shapes or fluidity seen in my paintings. Especially my works starting in 2014—these sculpturesque totem-like forms sitting on platforms within serene environments directly informed the first sculptures I made in 2017. Then a few years later, from the sculptures came the relief pieces.

Photography is simply a tool for synthesizing what I see or encapsulating an experience that I want to save and remember. Collecting visual cues is innate—textures, compositions, and moments of tension between nature and human intervention—and these images often find their way back into my paintings in some form or another. I see all these disciplines as interconnected, feeding on one another and helping me build a more layered and immersive visual language.

...interview continued here

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Ostentatious Oasis

A New Exhibition by Dave Kinsey

Confronts Humanity’s Delusions of Permanence

Oolong Gallery is pleased to present Ostentatious Oasis, a solo exhibition by San Diego based painter Dave Kinsey, opening March 15th and running through April 15th. In his first solo exhibition in four years, this body of work—a continuation of Kinsey’s ongoing Existential Synthesis series—confronts humanity’s precarious relationship with nature and the self-imposed isolation that blinds us to its realities.

For this exhibition, Kinsey employs disjointed marble figures as metaphors for human arrogance— symbolizing illusions of purity and permanence that fracture under the weight of our own actions. White marble, historically tied to wealth and power, becomes a symbol of hubris, crumbling in contrast to the consequences of human advancement: wars that displace, disasters that devastate, and relentless exploitation that erodes the natural world.

How do we as humans coexist or even adapt within these uncanny and divergent spaces? What will become of our modern way of living that seems at odds with the natural rhythm of our planet? the artist asks.

Set within surreal, urbane environments, the figures reflect humanity’s disconnection from nature, insulated within artificial comforts that distort our perception of reality. Through deep earth tones and fluid, dreamlike compositions, Kinsey invites viewers to confront these fragile constructs and reimagine humanity’s role—not as masters of the Earth, but as beings inextricably bound to it.

Influenced by a pivotal trip to Florence in 2022, Kinsey draws upon the grandeur of Renaissance sculpture while subverting its ideals through a surrealist lens. This synthesis of historical reverence and contemporary existential inquiry defines Ostentatious Oasis, bridging past and present in an urgent reflection on civilization’s fragility.

Opening reception will be held on March 15th from 6-8pm, where the artist will be in attendance.

For press inquiries, high-resolution images, or interview requests, please contact Oolong Gallery at info@oolongalery.com

Exhibition Details:

Title: Ostentatious Oasis

Artist: Dave Kinsey

Venue: 6030 La Flecha, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067

Dates: March 15th - April 15th, 2025

Opening: March 15th (6-8pm)

Website: www.oolongallery.com | Instagram: @oolongallery