Masternak’s ‘Analytical Odysseys’

Nate Masternak's solo art exhibition "Analytical Odysseys" opened at the Jefferson Street Secor Building on June 3.

Masternak's exhibit was held on the sixth floor of the building. The Secor Building displays work and gallery spaces for artists throughout the fifth and seventh floors.

Many of his works were displayed on the walls for sale as well as for show. A small band, which included his father on guitar, provided a classic rock ambiance for the evening.

Masternak has been recreationally painting since he was young, but became a professional artist in 1999. He has painted murals downtown and in venues, as well as creating a plethora of personal works.

In 2003, he and his best friend Ben Miller-Rios started the organization Artivism, which, "is basically a business that does public art for public places," according to Masternak.

Some of his pieces can be found in Toledo Botanical Gardens, Downtown Latte, the Sanger Branch Library, the Art and Soul Gallery in Muncie, Ind. and Gallery 555 in Detroit. He also painted for the old Brewed Awakenings, before it was Ground Level, and The Happy Badger when it was on Reynolds Road in Toledo.

Many of Masternak's works are heavily detailed collages featuring lines of the artists' poetic expression alongside diverse images. There were series' of flowers, butterflies and other outdoor elements framed on display.

There were a few pieces in which he experimented with the technique carbon staining, which creates an image similar to billows of black smoke captured on canvas.

The exhibit featured a variety of Masternak's paintings, some with heavy intricacy to others of graceful minimalism. There were around 30 pieces total, all created within the last five years.

Many things were going on in the Secor Building that night. University of Toledo Assistant Professor Holly Hey's video installation titled, "Burning The Maples" took place simultaneously on the first floor.

Hey's installation was created with the help of current and former film and video students. Hey said the video is a tribute to her late father as well as a contemplation of memory time and landscape.

She noted in her description of the work that his memory lives on in the fine grains and lines of the wood for her.

The video of her father working with wood was played on screens inside wooden walls. There were branches covering the windows and hanging from the ceiling and the video was projected on the walls.

There was also a screen inside a tree stump on one end and a wood chipper sculpture on the other. Hey showed her audience how her father lives on vicariously inside the wood for her.

There were also other artists who opened their gallery spaces for the public; of the artists, a painter named Keroy Krow, known as simply Krow, spoke about the benefits of working in the Secor Building.

"It is nice to have a designated workspace rather than working in combination with my living space," he said.

The Secor Building rents workspace to artists for decent prices and they are willing to give anyone a try.

Masternak's studio is on the sixth floor of the Secor Building. He has spent many hours in that space creating art individually and collaboratively. His art is a complex harmony of simplicity and chaos tuned to beauty on canvas.

His paintings are also going to be featured at the Parkwood Art Gallery on Parkwood Avenue beginning July 8. Masternak's works will be on display for the month of July in the Parkwood space. He is also trying to get into the Northwest Ohio show in Bowling Green, which he was a part of in 2009.

"This is what I do best, what I believe I should be doing in my life – stopping would be cheating myself. I was made to paint, to be an artist," Masternak said.

"Analytical Odysseys" will be up for the rest of June at the Secor Building at 425 Jefferson Street downtown. Holly Hey's "Burning The Maples" installation will be running for the rest of the month as well every Thursday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the month. Other artists will also be opening their spaces for the public. Try to make it down to the Secor Building to see some of Toledo's best local artists.