In the old days of his urban exploration adventures, Jeff Bye would do what many explorers would do: the guerilla style of looking for unlocked doors, broken windows or slipping through gaps on chained fences. Inside these abandoned and forgotten places—dilapidated buildings crumbling back into the earth, factories ravaged by time, theaters long after they showed their last movies—he would find inspiration for his next paintings.
Kenosha Theater, oil on linen, 28 x 60"
These days, the guerilla method is a risky maneuver, one he leaves for younger urbex enthusiasts, including ones who aren’t art professors at Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. “The Penn State thing goes a long way. It’s easier for me to contact the owners of a property and just tell them what I want to do, and they usually let me in. They hear Penn State and they are willing to listen to my requests,” Bye says with a laugh. “Some people just break in, but as I’ve gotten older, I like this more diplomatic route. It’s especially nice when you’re inside working on something and you don’t have to worry about people finding you without having permission to be there.”
Camp, oil on linen, 30 x 66"
Bye, who lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania, will be showing his newest works, including numerous images of abandoned or empty buildings, at the Art Association of Harrisburg in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, starting October 4. The show is titled The Ugly Beautiful.
One of the major new pieces is Kenosha Theater,which shows a wide interior view inside a prominent Wisconsin moviehouse. Although the theater is in a sad state, it’s not abandoned and its owners hope to bring it back to life. “It was first a vaudeville theater, and then transformed into a movie theater. It was built around the idea of Spanish castles, so there’s a blue ceiling meant to look the sky. The man who built it lived in California, but his hometown was in Kenosha. It’s a wonderful theater,” Bye says. “Buildings like this are a curiosity to many people. In terms of scale and architecture, as well as ornamentation, they stand out. Inside, when they’re empty like this, there is an quietness and an eeriness.”
Canal Street, oil on canvas, 18 x 24"
In the painting Camp, Bye paints another interior of a debris-strewn building that has long been empty of life. Just looking at the image, it’s easy to imagine people inside: first-time business owners, skilled laborers, creative people who could use their hands. These people are the unspeaking ghosts who live in the painting, and our minds. Sometimes the truth is even more interesting. For Camp, Bye says it was first used as a POW camp for Germans in World War II. Nazi officers and U-boat captains were held there after capture. Later, the building was turned into a youth home for boys before it was abandoned in the 1980s. These details, real and imagined, add to the paintings.
Corner Bodega, oil on linen, 30 x 40"
“It was an easy decision for me to invite Jeff Bye for a solo exhibition," says Nate Foster, director of exhibitions at the Art Association of Harrisburg. “I intend to showcase his most recent pieces and a large body of work spanning several years focusing on urban decay and what he affectionately calls ‘the ugly beautiful.’ His large paintings depicting blighted environments and the everyday people living there are important in and of themselves. Showing them here at the Art Association of Harrisburg, a former governor’s mansion with a well-manicured garden, adds a layer of thought-provoking dichotomy that will impact the viewers as they engage with the art. I anticipate this show to be one of the year’s best exhibits.”
A reception will take place at the gallery on October 18, from 5 to 8 p.m. —
Art Association of Harrisburg 21 N. Front Street • Harrisburg, PA 17101 • (717) 236-1432 www.artassocofhbg.com
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