WES BOGNER -
From the very first Bogner artwork seen in an island art competition, I knew here was an artist with special talents. Soon he was part of a select stable promoted thru my own gallery and I began to more deeply appreciate the diversity of expertise (and technical talent) needed to create his unique series based on historic Hawaiian 'petroglyphs' from ages //// past. Wes' sensitivity to unusual colours gave each finished work its own character and visual appeal. While essentially Hawaiiana they stand out from that grouping via his fiercely interpretive individualism.
I have only to turn from my desk to see a memorable example from that genre and then glance left to see a totally humorous flip to his own colourful character. His cartooning via tiny multi-hued wood-rollered flip-flop sandal/skates makes you realize ingenuity is a major component for every work whatever the subject. That he no longer paints from within island boundaries in no way diminishes the technical knowledge he draws from in extending that series taking his work into newly discovered digital directions.
The internet has opened new opportunities for art appreciation and created an audience our Pacific isolation could never offer. Multi-cultural imagery is certainly a major component within the realm of both his mind and hand and one looks toward the growing appeal it will undoubtedly find outside our islands. But then our loss is really not so much a loss as a proper gain for the art world at-large.
- Amaury SAINT-GILLES, ArtsPacifica Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts