In two words—Hush Hook—you can say a lot about “youth,” and also, importantly, viscerally: “my youth!” You can capture something of new century America and a little bit of wistful hope. Innocence and symbolism? Sure. But the most important thing is the extraordinary capacity for the cultivation of self.

There is an indelible ability to conjure a time, a place. It looks and smells innocent enough, with its pale color and delicate swirl strands. Hush hope faith and charity an anchor a cross a teardrop a sword. The figure is present as an undertone like a feature that has been blown away in a powdery wind.

With all this musical clarity and confident color, there is also a sense of awareness of cruelty or a loss of it. Powdered fresh innocence brings to those who have a connection with a sense of their own inner gentleness, a clear connection with the innocence of their inner child, seemingly caged inside.

Simple symbols, a bone, a whisker, a stitch, populate in floating, scattered angles. Hush Hook is a lullaby and a cradle that rocks eternally. Hush a bye baby, and tip toe don’t let them hear you cry. Virtue may be defined as a habit of mind in harmony with reason and the order of nature. It has four parts: wisdom , justice, courage, temperance.

Brian Kokoska (1988, Vancouver, Canada) lives and work in New York. Kokoska received his BFA from Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2012. His work has been shown in numerous solo or two-person exhibitions including Valentin, Paris, East Hampton Shed, NY, Preteen Gallery, Mexico City, Ohmydays, Singapore, American Medium, NY, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York. Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo in 2016 at Smart Objects, Los Angeles. Kokoska was in the group exhibition Bomber at Loyal in June 2015. Hush Hook is his first solo exhibition with Loyal.