Stremmel Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Bill Braun, Jerry Iverson, and John Randall Nelson, on view from May 11 through June 10, 2017. The subject matters of the works include abstract, pop, and the playful. All three artists have been featured in multiple shows at Stremmel Gallery.

Bill Braun’s trompe l’oeil (French for “trick the eye”) paintings recall simple, childlike objects. His works require closer inspection, as the appearance of crumpled paper, staples, pushpins, string, and colored pencils look to be low-relief collage, but upon further review, are discovered to be composed entirely of acrylic paint on canvas. Braun has shown his paintings throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as Stremmel Gallery. Born in Long Beach, CA, Braun graduated from Reno High School before studying at University of Nevada, Reno and California College of Arts and Crafts, where he received his B.F.A. in 1978.

The abstract work of Jerry Iverson has been greatly influenced by the beauty and grace of Asian calligraphy. For the last 15 years, his materials have consisted solely of Sumi ink, paper, and rabbit skin glue. Iverson creates his collaged paintings by dipping paper marked with black lines of ink in glue. He then layers the paper onto board repeatedly, adding more brush stokes as he goes. The results are bold compositions of black lines on various shades of white, gold, brown, and gray. Previous marks are revealed through the dense and textured surface of the now translucent papers. The palette references the natural landscape surrounding the artist in Montana, while the stark and gestural marks ask viewers to reflect on the complex, and sometimes difficult, nature of life.

John Randall Nelson emerged in the mid-’90s as a painter and sculptor known for taking simple, bold, and instantly recognizable symbols and imbuing them with a sense of theater. His paintings often consist of a central image superimposed over a collage of icons and text (anything from art criticism to nursery rhymes). Through the constant reworking, sanding, layering and painting of the surface, the process of discovery and creation comes to the forefront of Nelson’s canvases. Based in Scottsdale, AZ, Nelson received his MFA from Arizona State University.