By the Banks | Paintings by Jack Banks and Hunter Banks

#FFFHEX contemporary art gallery is pleased to announce an opening reception for the exhibition By the Banks on Saturday, May 13 from 5–7 PM. Father-and-son figurative painters Jack Banks and Hunter Banks both focus on the landscape surrounding their home in Wake, Virginia near the Rappahannock River.

Jack Banks paints dense forest and gnarled tree trunks. The expressive brushwork of his small panels seems to be alive with continuous motion: a downed tree crawls with the activity of decay; a branch whips in the wind. Jack explained that the paintings take time to mature, and he will sometimes toss newly completed panels into the woods. After months pass, he may stumble upon them and determine that they have come into their own, or if not, leave them in the thicket.

Hunter Banks is drawn to the quiet clearings of homesites and the riverbank. His piece River with Ice on It depicts a giant prehistoric stump unearthed by erosion that is now, after 30,000 years rest, quickly disappearing into the water. The forms of sky, ice, and land dissolve into austere abstraction. Hunter writes, “I work at a walking pace, slowly negotiating and agreeing with the scene until the consolidated colors, simplified shapes, and subtle marks settle my doubts, whims, and twinges into stillness.” He notes that texts on walking shared by his father inform his focus and sense of awareness.

By the Banks presents pairings of their paintings with an eye to formal and emotional relationships. These beautiful works offer views of the Tidewater landscape and a look into the enigmatic artistic rapport of Jack Banks and Hunter Banks.

The exhibition will be on view May 13–June 3. Please contact the gallery for an appointment to view the works by phone (804) 384-6288 or by email [email protected]. More information is available online at www.fffhex.com.

Jack Banks studied art at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the College of William and Mary. He and his family live in rural Tidewater, VA where he has been employed in boat-building, sign painting and graphic art. His drawings, paintings and monotypes are in many private collections up and down the east coast.

Hunter Banks is an observational painter who paints concise, quiet images of landscapes, structures, objects, and sometimes people. Banks was born in 1993 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Art History from Christopher Newport University in 2014. He lives and works in Middlesex, VA and teaches visual art at Christchurch School.

#FFFHEX is an artist-run contemporary gallery that was founded in 2016 to share a curatorial perspective unique in Mathews Courthouse, a small town on the tip of Virginia’s middle peninsula. The gallery features rotating exhibitions of painting and sculpture by local, national and international artists. The name #FFFHEX plays on the graphic designer’s hexadecimal colors, referring to the “white cube” philosophy of presenting artwork in a dedicated environment that is free from distraction.