Frank Hyder

Biography

Artist Statement

Through my work I seek to engage the viewer in a sensory and visual dialogue. Nature and the dynamics of light are my subjects. The spiritual nature of man is my interest. The enigma of the moment, the wonder of scale and the ever present hope of redemption and transformation are my goals. I seek to create a metaphysical reality of intense light and shade where forms appear and dissolve, to dream with eyes open, to feel without touching and to feel touched by the very experience of seeing the painting. There is the suggestion of events and exotic places familiar at once and yet strangely unknown, as if they exist only in the deep memory of Carl Jungian archetypal experience. The image has a pulse and character which is often translated through its unusual use of materials. It seeks to become a powerful yet reassuring visionary experience.

Article

Victoria Donohoe

Art Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer

Member of the International Association of Art Critics, U.S. Section

Frank Hyder, a Northern Liberties painter and woodcut artist with an M.F.A. based in Miami, has traveled widely in South America and Mexico. . Southern exposure suits him. But there was a single life-changing experience that made all the difference for this venturesome artist. Hyder spent one year living and painting in the Venezuelan rain forest. This led to his having solo exhibits at five Venezuelan art museums between 1996 and 2002.

" The Rhythm Series" focus on the movements, colors and textures, over the image of the fish itself. For Hyder the process of painting is a metaphor /ritual like setting a table. He carefully prepares the support by applying acrylic gel medium, which he shapes almost as a gardener shapes the sand in a Zen Garden. When this is dry he applies metal leaf to his textures. Next he pours acrylic epoxy Resin over this raked surface creating a smooth surface. When dry he begins applying large shapes of color, which will become the images of the fish. He frequently applies Resin many times over this and continues to paint on the successive higher levels. This allows at times looking at the image from an angle and being able to see under a paint level.

Spirited and unpretentious and never slick, it portrays nature in fresh and unfamiliar ways with green growth all around and no sky visible. Also in response to nature around him, Hyder tries hard to capture a sense of motion in his art, notably in his portrayal here of schools of fish swimming beneath water. Moreover, Hyder in a third space here reveals an attitude toward painting that’s poetic, even mystical, demonstrated ably and with distinction in his rugged spirit images. These tell us that Hyder intends his art to be about the human experience. And since paintings speak to us, he wants his to tap into our deeper moods and feelings. Such art can be powerfully evocative. Yet it avoids sentimentality.

His inspiration comes from nature and the painting process itself. The Koi emerged in his work while he was living in the cloud forest of Venezuela. Having spent nearly one year in this magical environment he found the inspiration for the fish, as he felt as emerged in this world as a fish may find itself focused on a small proximal space. The movement of trees and leaves responding to the wind was all around him. 

As he has said:

“I am painting a contemporary landscape. These Koi exist in a metaphysical world."

He announces this and the feeling is heightened by the use of traditional gold and silver leaf, formally reserved for sacred spaces. The Koi is an ancient art symbol and has a noble tradition in the history of art. The composition he uses is based in modern art not traditional landscape painting; he picks the viewer up and places them directly over almost confronting the fish allowing for emersion into the landscape space. He has as well at times created room installations as a landscape space that the viewer can actually step into.

Hyder especially shows himself here to be an artist awakened by the present moment. For he encourages us to marvel at the world’s rain forests, all the while knowing the uncertainty of their survival. Better when the social message that persists is held to the realm of painting and printmaking by the artist’s personal energy, as it is here. Hyder doesn’t want to make the message any more explicit. Shape, but more often line and texture, build the pictorial narrative of the exhibit as a whole. Hyder's works are collected by many museums, corporate and private collectors around the world.

Collections

Museums

U.S. Embassy, Caracas, Venezuela 
Carnegie Museum, Oxnard, CA 
Centro Colombo Americano, Medellin, Colombia 
Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, MI 
LaSalle University Museum, Philadelphia, PA 
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Museo de Contemporaneo, Caracas, Venezuela 
Ontario Museum of Art , Toronto , Canada 
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Permanent Collection 
Pennsylvania Convention Center Commission, Philadelphia, PA 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA 
U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 
Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, PA

Corporations

ARA Services Corporation 
Bell Atlantic Corporation 
Halley Berry 
Berwind Trust Co. 
Franklin Mint 
GE Corporation 
Elton John 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
Microsoft 
Pennsylvania Convention Center
Saks Fifth Avenue 
Terminal Freezes
Wyndham Franklin Plaza

Selected Exhibitions