Ampersand is pleased to present Enchantment, an exhibition of new oil paintings by Hickory Mertshing. Drawing upon the symbolic detritus of the American West, both literal and mythic, Mertshing's paintings combine elements of playful remnant kitsch amid narratives of impermanence, waste and potential violence. Sculptural in their arrangement, his canvases imply the compositional horizon of desert and forest floors or the romantic tablescapes of a still life painter. The exhibition's centerpiece, El Norte, is a totemic grouping of skulls (both human and animal), foliage, human waste, a coyote and rabbit, all set in implied motion by a hovering hummingbird, striking owl and a smoking prairie fire. These are the creatures and human containers that populate Mertshing's world, one grounded in the folklore of the West but set rambling amid his own imaginary geography of enchantment.

Hickory Mertshing lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He received a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 1996 and has worked extensively in sculpture and metal fabrication. Since 2005, he has worked exclusievely with drawing and oil on canvas. His paintings have been shown widely and are in several private and corporate collections. This is his first exhibition with the gallery.