• In Town — Los Angeles and environs

Wes Hempel takes assumed narratives of masculinity and myth and deftly recontextualizes them – supple flesh, classical architectural forms, and pastoral landscapes take on new meaning under Hempel’s virtuosic brush strokes.  By setting psychologically acute portraits of modern-day men against backdrops appropriated from such disparate sources as neoclassical history painting and Dutch golden age landscapes, the artist’s works forge provocative dialogues between past and present.