Vinum et Veritas

The truth may indeed be found in wine. But FRED PLUMLEY has managed to deliver the two side by side — or, more accurately, one inside the other — with his exceptional new series of wine box paintings, painted on all sides and featuring poetry (aka, wine box maxims), once opened. (Examples: “The line between fantasy and reality is blurred / (Big Foot is loose in NYC)” or “Everything is just going to be alright / Don’t open wounds that won’t heal”...and much more!) They are, simply put, ENCHANTING WORKS. But should you happen to stop by Saturday, sadly the 3D space will look nothing like this. Nor will other wine boxes dangle enticingly from our ceiling. (And Fred’s three terrific large canvases will not be on the Wall either.) But we hope to convince the artist to keep some of his available wine boxes for sale at offthewallgallery.org. The timing would be fortuitous, to say the least. What better holiday present could there be than a couple of nice bottles in a unique work of art?!

FRED PLUMLEY
oil paintings on utilitarian wine boxes
with a “wine box maxim” inside

#7-8: 175. each
“Your Child”
“Scared of History”

#9-12: 225. each
“Water over the Whale”
“Open Wounds”
“The Hot Soup”
“Sweet Sun”

Our Resident Dissident

As you may have noticed, last summer’s REEMERGE juried show was also a show about emergence: the revelation and addition of many new talents to our community. From the heart and, at that time in her teaching career, the heartland (namely, K-State and Manhattan, Kansas) arrived ELENA MASROUR, whose insightful, activist, playful, acerbically satiric practice — expressed in comics-influenced art — takes on the scourge of her native land. “My works are inspired by the proliferation of religious propaganda over the last 40 years in my home country, Iran, and the social changes taking place since the Revolution,” says Elena. “I represent a generation of Iranian people who aspire to be modern at a time when religious leaders continue to weaponize the rules of God to maintain control.” Her stunning new collection — this time hailing from Alabama, where she is lecturing at Birmingham-Southern College, after a faculty residency in between at the Cleveland Institute of Art — certainly nods to another sardonic cartoonist in Robert Crumb, while finding a brand-new metaphorical language as the drawings’ heroines do battle with little demons in everyday, often overtly domesticized settings. It’s all part of a life philosophy inseparable from her work. “Painting comical figures lets me imagine the fun of these individuals,” explains the artist, “and it offers my wish for contemporary Iran to become a peaceful, safe place where people can thrive.” All of these original, one-of-a-kind drawings are available for purchase right now in person or online (offthewallgallery.org).

ELENA MASROUR
(in order of the portfolio shown)
“I’m ready, how about you?”
India ink and combo brush on Bristol
11 x 14 framed (9 x 12 drawing)
500.

“Smell a bit of heaven.”
India ink and combo brush on Bristol
11 x 14 framed (9 x 12 drawing)
500.

“I can do more than that!”
India ink and combo brush on Bristol
11 x 14 framed (9 x 12 drawing)
500.

“What are you afraid of?”
India ink and combo brush on Bristol
11 x 14 framed (9 x 12 drawing)
500.

Doubleheader Today

No doubt, many are going to book it out of work just a little early to make it to a screen for NLCS Game3, with its 5:07 start time. We humbly suggest you choose the big screen at DIRTY FRANK'S. And after the #heroics of Schwarber-Turner-Harper-Realmuto-Castellanos, we invite you to transition to our OFF THE WALL lineup: Masrour...Pirzio-Biroli...Plumley...Why...and Wynn with the OPENING RECEPTION of the 2023 AUTUMN INVITATIONAL. To be frank (which we always are at Frank’s), it’s ONE BIG PARTY! So doubles, double plays, punchouts and long balls, 5-8 PM. Then drawing and illustration, painting (including 3D wine box paintings), and printmaking, 7-10 PM. Drinks, conversation and curator JODY SWEITZER, who will bartend, then cede her gig to ROSE COSSABONE and host, ensure that the fun, red dots and #RedOctober pick up momentum throughout. See you tonight!