California Contemporary Art - Summer 2010

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Maria OMalley8 Linda Vallejo12 Arshile Gorky18Art Shack at Laguna Art Museum 25 Patrick Graham 18

California Exhibitions 16-21

ALIFORNIA

ONTEMPORARY

ART

ne 2010| On the Cover: Mark Harrington, Depth of Field 4, 2010, acrylic on linen, 48 x 38.25.(see pa


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Fang Ling-An

EverythingIsStitchingTogetherSimultaneously

CB1 Gallery Hours:

Wednesday - Sunday, noon - 6 pm

Friday open until : pm

wwwcb1gallerycom

21-86-889

gallery@cb1gallerycom

07W.5thStreet

LosAngelesCA003

May 29 - June 27, 2010


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History and Vanity: tHe distillation of rumorBen WHite

may 26-June 26, 2010

5797 Washington Boulevard | Culver City, California 90232323.272.3642 | www.blytheprojects.net

Members of Westboro Baptist Church Protest at a Neanderthal Burial Ceremony, 2010acrylic and spray paint on panel | 36 x 48 inches


8/328 A|C|A June 2010

ARTISTS

For three consecutive nights, MariaOMalley, an accomplished gurative oilpainter, dreamed o bees. Her ancientGreek ancestry taught her to be sensi-tive to the interconnectedness o lieand that dreams can convey messages.Because o these dreams and their re-petitive nature, OMalley paid attention.Her subconscious thoughts and ensuingresearch about bees led her to determinewhat the dreams meant. She discoveredthat beeswax, also known as encaustics,

is an ancient art orm. Except or JasperJohns encaustic resurgence, the mediumwas not popular at the time o OMalleysdreams. With no knowledge o workingin encaustics, OMalley learned all shecould about using beeswax in her art.

While the artist investigated and studiednew art supplies, she continued to paintin oils. OMalleys gurative oils won sev-eral rst place prizes and were part o a

long list o ne exhibitions. Tese includethe Laguna Art Museum and ChapmanUniversity. Working in amiliar oils andless amiliar encaustics, the artist realizedshe was at home using the beeswax pro-cess. Following every lead, she sought toknow more about her lies new direction.Eventually, an unknown, elderly artistin New York City graciously taught hermuch o what she needed to know.

OMalley never anticipated that her

Greek ancestry would come to her aidin the 20th century. Almost 3,000 yearsago, Greek artists, were accomplishedin encaustic portraits and mythologicalscenes on panels which still exist today.Homer, the epic Greek poet, sited the useo encaustics in describing the battle oroy. Increasingly OMalley was drawn tobeeswax when she realized its durabilityover other art materials. It has no toxicumes and requires no solvents. Encaus-

tics do not deteriorate, yellow, or dark

and do not have to be placed under glIn act, the Greeks used encaustic aresin to weatherproo their ships. Whthe process is laborious, a work o art a permanency rarely seen in other marials. Also important is health hazards reduced or eliminated making the pcess environmentally sound.

Requiring a heat o 180 to 200 degremolten beeswax is like scalding thsyrup. It does not unite with water

many other materials and requires snicant experience to know when iready to use. Like a neophyte chemOMalley made her studio into a labotory, nding her way in unexplored tritory. Many experiments were disastand dangerous, however, perseveraprevailed. Not only has she gained exptise, OMalley has tailored the encauprocess to suit the materials she loves aher particular artistic style. oday

blends drawing materials into wax; vents her own equipment, and incorrates disparate supplies bought at lumyards. OMalleys unique process ingrates natural resins, and uses drawipainting, and relie sculpture.

When OMalley went rom oils to caustics, her style and subject mattertered, yet certain key signature eaturemain. Her encaustic landscapes, as oil-based gurative paintings, engage

viewer with large open negative spaand linear congurations. A lone treea ew trees in a solitary open white are haunting images. Or, graceul trewith elegant branches may cover the tire surace. Painted in grays and blarom graphite pencil shavings, or redsmelted Conte crayons, OMalleys lascapes are painted more rom imagition than observation. Teir enigmaquality comes rom a usion o layers t

An Encaustic Journey by Roberta Carasso

Maria OMalley, Cosmic Landscape, encaustic and graphite on panel, 36x48.

Maria OMalley


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EXHIBITIONS

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may appear deceptively at or texturally

thick, but always painterly as OMalleybuilds layer upon layer, up to 30 layers oencaustics and resins varying the densityo each area.

Tis arduous process requires continu-ously adding and removing materials byabrasion and application; includes vari-ous drawing methods - thick and thinbrushstrokes and mark making; andsculptural methods - the carving andbuilding up o tactile suraces. Te result

o this rich process o constructing anddeconstructing, is a luminous and mattesurace that reects light in varying de-grees throughout the composition. In ad-dition, an interplay o layers, with edgeso one process meeting layers o a ormerprocess, gives the surace an other world-ly appearance as i one can see and eeldierent time periods simultaneously.Viewing an OMalley painting is like be-ing in the moment yet going back in time,

peeling through stratum o the past thatare either covered over or seem to juxta-pose past with present.

Using thick leather welding gloves,sculpting tools, torches, hot air wallpaperguns, and working with molten materials,it is impossible to have preconceived no-tions or be ormulaic. Rather encausticsdemand discovery. Consequently, trainedin a representational style, OMalley nowworks conceptually, becoming a partner

with the process as she nds sacred placesand spaces that are intuitive and organic.With each step, each abrasion, each over-lay o placing natural resins and beeswaxon the panel, surprises continuously oc-cur. Like a symphony conductor, OMalleyguides each element to ruition, keenlyoverseeing the many dynamics simulta-neous at play. Tus, like her Greek ances-

try, OMalley creates timeless and lumnous encaustic imagery that will endu

Roberta Carasso, Ph.D., is an electedmember of the International Art Criti

Association, curator, and art writer. Hwebsite is carasso.com/roberta. For moinformation about Maria O'Malley vi

mariaomalley.com.

Maria OMalley: (above) Red Dune, encaustic and conte on panel, 32x38;(below) White Lake, encaustic and graphite on panel, 6x24.

Maria OMalle


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ARTISTS

My art is an eclectic mixture o themany nepantla realms I inhabit as an art-ist and woman o color. Renowned emi-nist scholar Gloria F. Orenstein notesthat my work narrates a mythic jour-ney rom nepantla, the space betweendivided worlds--cultures, lands, states o

consciousness,i d e o l o g i e s ,identities--toan envisageda r c h e t y p a lrealm o lightand enlight-enment. Iam indebtedto Proes-sor Orensteinor bringing

the nepant-lera journeyto light. Tisconcept de-scribes mypractice omoving romone artisticidea or processto the next. Icontinuously

abandon situ-ations o cer-tainty andtravel to un-known places where I am compelled tocreate new images. I ask mysel, Can theartist move seamlessly rom one idea andmedia to the next and remain centeredon their personal vision? And I nd thatmy answer is always a resounding Yes!

I was born in East Los Angeles, an area

Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primal symbols o shiing consciousness.Bridges span liminal spaces between worlds, spaces I call nepantla, a Nahuatl word meaningtierra entre medio. ransormations occur in this in-between space, an unstable, unpredictable,precarious, always-in-transition space lacking clear boundaries. - Gloria Anzaldua

In Her Own Words:

o diverse racial and cultural traditions.My ather, an ocer in the Air Force, wasstationed throughout the US and Europe,so our amily traveled extensively. I wasable to visit many o the worlds greatestmuseums and study the masterworks intheir collections. Recalling images rom

these cultural strongholds, I am remind-ed o the alchemical processes that art-ists use in transorming inormation andexperiences into new works. As a youngpainter living in Spain, I was deeply in-spired by Pablo Picasso, particularlyby his ability to develop a multitude ounique and disparate styles. His ability to

leap rom one idea to the next, over long creative lietime, ascinates me acontinues to inuence my own work.

I believe that authentic artworks conly be created through an understaning o the artists own individual jo

ney combinwith an artic style veloped decades d e d i c a t i oI commit least ve yeto any nbody o woI believe tl o n g - t e r

commitmeallows me discover ap r o i c i e nly illustrthe multiand comppoints o idea.

As a viewI am attraed to uniqand comptechnical

proaches in the application o paint amixed media. I am especially drawnimages that juxtapose philosophisociological, spiritual, and political ements drawn rom a wide span o histoI am deeply attracted to images that drinuence rom an extended historicontext to create an image o the conte

Linda Vallejo, Electric Landscape Full Moon in Daylight, 2009, oil on canvas, 50x60.

Linda Vallejo

ART AS A NEPANTLERA JOURNEY


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porary world in all its complexity.

In my orty-year career, I have gener-ated several distinct bodies o work, ina variety o media, oen ocusing on aseries o ideas around a central theme.Many times, the impetusto create a new series oworks comes rom an ac-cident o artistic alchemy.Sometimes, I nd thatthe meaning o a particu-lar work o art is not clear

until long aer its comple-tion. Many require consid-erable time or reection.

My newest suite oworks, Te Electrics, be-gan as portraits o theCaliornia oak trees thatsurround my home in o-panga Canyon. For twelveyears, I had been paint-

ing Caliornia landscapesin a magical realist style.Ten one night, I triedto capture the glow o anoak bathed in the light oa ull moon. Te paintedeld dissolved into mul-tiple organic shapes andbold marks painted inunexpectedly heightenedcolors. Since that ateulnight, I have completed

several oaks, landscapes,and portraits inspired bythis rst eort where colorbecame electric, mov-ing and vibrating across the canvas. Inthinking through the process, I believethat Te Electrics have been inuencedby Andy Warhols pop icons, the splotchy"pixels" o Chuck Closes portraits, andthe psychedelic palette o 1960s artistlike Peter Max. I can also see inuences

rom Gustav Klimts emphatic patterning,

combined with the visual repetition andcoloration o Huichol yarn painting andindigenous ceremonial beadwork. Teseare artists and images that I have stud-ied and enjoyed over many decades. Tis

Nepantlera may arrive in an unchartedartistic place, but she brings a melange omemories to the new creative locale.

Like a true Nepantlera, I have traveledull circle to emulate Picasso and his un-canny ability to mix and match inuenc-

es, media, and style in an eort to cre

my own unique image and vision. Artic leaps and accidental alchemies hkept my artistic juices alive, and I alwlook orward to the next inuence ainspiration.

What others have s

about Vallejo's work:

Artist, educator, andcritic Nancy Kay urn

"Vallejos work demstrates a relentless expration and manipulato materials while remaing true to her inner sion. Tere is a proouconsistency here despthe diversity o materand inuences. Valleprodigious body o wolike the artist hersel, i

orce o nature.

William Moreno, mer Director o the Cremont Art Museum athe Mexican MuseumSan Francisco: Vallebroad command o a riety o mediums: paiing, sculpture and sspecic installations all within her prolic o

vre. Vallejos interests subject-matter spans considerable. Temes beauty, consumption, w

excess, world pollution, iconic reerento international indigenous peoples aearth-based installations all reside in works.

For more information about Linda

Vallejo, visit lindavallejo.com.

Linda Vallejo, Electric Landscape Joshua Tree, 2008, oil oncanvas, 48x36.

Linda Vallejo


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8687 melrose ave suite b222 los angeles ca 90069 | t 310.294.8577 | www.housprojects.co

31 howard street, floor 2 new york, ny 10013 | t 212.941.5801 | e [email protected]

h

hous projects

DARKmatter

Nadine Rovner, One at a Time Archival Digital Pigment Print , 200

Featured Artists:Narelle Autio Jen Davis

Scott Davis Marian Drew John Houshmand

Molly Landreth Eric Ogden Trent Parke

Charles Robb Nadine Rovner Haley Jane Samuelson

Phillip Toledano Nicola Vinci

march 25 - august 17 2010


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EXHIBITIONS

Tim HawkinsonBlum & PoeLos Angeles

[through June 26]

Tim Hawkinsons work is known or itssprawling, surrealistic sel-portraiture inwhich the body, through intense introspec-tion, becomes an alien landscape open toradical redenition and transormation.Tis artistic agenda is mirrored materiallyby Hawkinsons use o amiliar and ubiqui-tous consumer packaging and householdobjects in highly unconventional ways. Tenew work continues these rerains, whilealso exploring more pointedly, temporality,mortality, and the cyclic. Hawkinson worksin a wide array o media involving sculpture,painting, photography, and installation.Te exhibition reects this range, with suchpieces as Orrery, a towering eight-oot tall

sculpture o a woman at a spinning whatop a platorm o rotating concentric cirtire treads. Tis piece looks to mechanimodels used to illustrate the motions o planets and their moons in our solar stem. A sculptural collage o water bottplastic shopping bags, recouped hardwaand odds and ends comprise the womahead, hands, eyes, ears, and spindle; evpart o the piece is interconnected and etnally spinning. A companion sculptuCandle, takes the orm o a giant oam cdle, nearly eight eet tall. Te dramatic scpropels this domestic object into a caulandscape and volcanic totem.

Donald JuddMaloneyLos Angeles

[through July 2]

Tis exhibition o rare drawings byDonald

Judd, created between 1963 and 1977, willilluminate the process by which his sculp-ture was conceived and realized, and pro- vide an overview o the iconic orms orwhich the artist became best known: stacks,progressions, boxes, and various orms thatthe artist called Specic Objects. Emerg-ing in the 1960s in New York, Judd becameknown as a major exponent o Minimal-ism, a label he strongly rejected, preer-ring to describe his work as the simpleexpression o complex thought. Te yearsbetween 1963 and 1977 were his most er-

tile years, a period in which the artist est

lished the ormal dictum that would guand inorm his work throughout his liethese drawings, one can trace the trajecto Judds thought processes as he ounstarting point or the reinvention o Amecan art. Judds desire was to make a distibreak rom the tradition o European AHe rejected the symbolism and emotwork o the abstract expressionists, baon ree-wheeling use o color and gestuand by introducing the use o industmaterials, Judd developed a vocabularysculptural orm that remains unrivaled.

Ben WhiteBlythe ProjectsLos Angeles

[through June 26]

Ben White's paintings merge anachronisticpersonages, events, biblical narratives, andpopular culture to create a antastic, non-linear interpretation o history. Tese con-structions play with the nature o subjectiv-ity and historical memory. He uses history

as a medium, abstractly arrang-ing topics displaced rom theirproper contexts. o achieve thisdislocation, he lters his per-sonal interests through Googlesearches, juxtaposing disparate,arbitrary results. Each work isa mental sel-portrait rom acertain moment, showing themultiplicitous aspect o thought one might be reading aboutGauguins Jacob Wrestling withthe Angel while listening to theband Rush and dreaming about

their 2112 tour. Tese perceptions becoa mash-up, a summation o personal istence that can't be contained by any htorical account. Americas ounding athpersecuted witches, Jesus, and other sujects rom mythology and the artistic canpopulate these works, interacting antacally with situations and personages rdistant and recent history. Te incongencies are absurd, and the absurdity itpulls them into the present. White's satdisarms imposing and amiliar gurrelieving them o their historical and ademic baggage and rendering them comiand approachable. It becomes our histagain, on equal terms with the present aonce again acceptable as subject matter contemporary painting. Historical gravleavened by wit, becomes a source o plsure and ascination. - Lara Bank

Tim Hawkinson, Orrery, 2010, plastic bottles,shopping bags, inkjet prints, twine, string, wire,foam, springs, tape, lead, steel, 93 x 96 x 96.

Ben White, The First Council of Nicaea Agrees on the Natureof Leviathan, 2009, acrylic and spray paint on panel, 30 x 49.

Donald Judd, Example work from Drawings,1963-1977. Courtesy of Maloney Fine Art.


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EXHIBITIONS

William Swanson &Jill WeinstockWalter MacielLos Angeles

[through July 2]

William Swansons new show, Mass Con-tinuum, takes a slight departure rom hisold, both in terms o perspective and place-ment o imagery. Although still interestedin presenting an illusionary view o highlyarchitectural orms colliding with natu-ral environments, he now takes the viewerinside to peek at the conceptual structuraldesigns rom the interior. Te works ex-amine propagation o ora within vacatedpublic spaces including halls, corridors andatriums. Te empty spaces stand as skeletalrameworks holding grids o light xtures,sections o walls, and partitions. Tesestructures indicate a once active corporateor retail inrastructure now abandoned andstripped o its original unction. Done romhand and without any computer generatedimagery, the compositions are created with

multi-layers o visual inormation piled ontop o each other. In Swansons paintings,

the imagery creates a dialogue betweenthe eco-system and man-made construc-tions and the eects both have on eachother respectively. | In her new work, JillWeinstock continues the use o repetitionin cast rubber orms with an emphasis onthe nostalgia o ones own childhood. Usingan original Fisher Price dollhouse rom the1970s as her mold, Weinstock casts the toyin dierent shades o pigmented rubber toexplore how experiences o objects in earlyyouth bridge the gap between reality andreminiscence. Trough this intensive pro-cess o transorming the toys into concep-tual mementos, Weinstock recalls the ob-jects past, suggesting its greater connectionto our collective memories, desires, anddisappointments. Weinstock's sculpturesput orth a potent cultural resonance or

representing memory in tandem with theormation o sel-narration.

(Top of Page) William Swanson, Particle Horizon, 2010, acrylic on wood panel, 30 x 47

(Directly Above) Jil Weinstock, Group of DoHouses, 2010, pigmented cast rubber, editioof 2 each, 10 x 15.75 x 9. Courtesy of WaMaciel Gallery, Los Angeles.

Ginger Wolfe-SuarezltdLos Angeles

[through June 26]

Ginger Wole-Suarez explores the psychol-ogy o built space and perceptions o placewhile re-engaging notions o site-specic-ity. Approaching ragility and imperma-nence, the material, textural, and odierouswith the same complexity as site and scale,Wole-Suarezs sculptures operate phenom-enologically, the exhibition space reormed

into a temporal and experiential zone or theviewers body. Utilizing a material paletteo wood, rock, paint, transparencies, light,yarn, as well as various odors and scents,her latest exhibition, Memory Objects in-cludes sculptures and installations ques-tioning how moments are made physical.Wole-Suarez negotiates a tension between

presence and non-presence, dispelling no-tions o reduction, in what the artist termsa symbolic abundance through absence."Both a collapsing o representation and aquestioning o material andprocess are embedded withinthe trajectory o Minimalismand the Minimalist object.

Meaningully endowing mem-ory with physicality, the artistssculptures explore boundariesbetween constructed, ound,and cast-objects as well as dis-tinctions between collective,psychological, personal, andhistorical memory.

One Piece is a dynamic ocean culture ex-hibit by Mike Saijo, including collabora-tions with ashion designer and artist PumaYoshie Seki. Te exhibit juxtaposes easternand western sociocultural history in rela-tion to oceanside lie. Saijo and Yoshi crosscultures as well as art orms, drawing romboth popular and academic movements.Conceptual mixed-media, traditional Japa-nese painting, sur art, Anime, and otherorms converse to explore the mythologyand ethos o the ocean environment. WhileSaijo is known or his book pieces, de-constructing pages o books and interplay-

ing them with images upontext, he will be branching outto new areas or this exhibit,including on-location beachinstallations, sculpture, andthe incorporation o painting,glass, and sculptural elementsinto his works. Collaborationswith Puma Yoshi begin withMike's usual Xerox composi-tions on book pages as the starting pointor new orms. Saijo reengages the Con-textualist ideal o deriving meaning in artrom soci-cultural and historical contex.

Mike Saijo & Puma Yoshie

Bleicher/Golightly &HamiltGalleriesSanta Monica[through July 2]

Ginger Wolfe-Suarez, Here (detail), 2009-20wood, concrete, glitter, rock, mirror.

Saijo, Grand Line (detail), wax & charcol on paof Jungs Symbols of Transformation on wood p


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EXHIBITIONS

Mark Harrington: (top) Depth of Field 2, 2010,acrylic on linen, 43.25 x 38.25. (bottom) GreatWhale, 2010, acrylic on linen, 79.5 x 72.5.

Mark HarringtonEdward CellaLos Angeles

[through July 10]

Depth o Field, a new exhibition romGerman-based artist Mark Harrington,presents new non-representational paint-ings, distinguished by their thickly layeredsuraces organized in rhythmic bands osubtle, contrasting color. Inspired by thecinematographer's term depth o eld the range o distance within a photographor lm image that is acceptably sharp theexhibition presents a sequence o paintingsexploring the dynamic visual relationshipbetween the painting's physical suraceand its illusory visual ground. With a debtto resco, Harrington imbeds multi-tonal veins o color into monochromatic eldsthrough repeated insertions and reduc-

tions o paint. Using a minimal or redtive system o compressed layers o built-and stripped-away paint, the artist contrwhat the eye perceives in terms o imery. In doing so, Harrington establishedialogue between illusory bands o traparent, distressed color and the plassculptural nature o his materials. Invtigating the interaction o color and liHarrington's large-scale abstractions oon space, pictorial depth, and light. Eploying the workmanship inherent to classical traditions o European paintiHarrington's paintings represent a conteporary reinterpretation o the aestheticsmodernist painting.

(above) Arshile Gorky, Untitled, c.1930-35, two-sided drawing, graphite on paper, 11.25x8.(center page) Patrick Graham, Wreath (Collat-eral Series), 2005-2006, oil on canvas diptych,72.87x134.63.

Patrick Graham & Arshile Gorky

Jack RutbergLos Angeles

[through July 31]

Monumental paintings and drawings byPatrick Graham, widely regarded as Ire-

lands most important contemporary artist,will be eatured in this major exhibition ohis recent works, joined by a number o theartists most iconic, large-scale paintings othe last 25 years. Patrick Graham has beencredited by art historians with changing theace o Irish painting, and has been recog-nized by Ireland as a living national trea-sure through his induction into Aosdnasince 1986. Fact o the Matter is his rstexhibition in Los Angeles since 2002. It o-

ers a rare opportunity to view a major pre-sentation o Grahams works; some recentlyexhibited in the critically acclaimed muse-um exhibition Te Quick and the Dead inDublin. | Opening in conjunction will be arare exhibition o drawings Armenian-born

artist Arshile Gorky(1904-1948), one o 20th centurys most important paint

and a seminal orce o American modeand contemporary art. Te exhibition weature Gorkys early sketchbook drawidating rom the early 1930s. It was durthat period when Gorky absorbed and dened European avant-garde sensibilithaving at that time a proound impact upsuch artists as Willem deKooning, HBurkhardt, Stuart Davis, John Graham, aIsamu Noguchi. [In act, Burkhardt wassponsible or introducing Gorky's work

the Los Angeles artists and curators.] Tdrawings in this exhibition reveal Gorkearly ruminations on cubism and biomphic abstraction, predating his encounwith the European expatriates who arrivin New York during World War II.


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EXHIBITIONS

Jamie IsensteinMichael BeneventoLos Angele

[through June 26]

Mostly known or her perormance-based sculptures that test the perma-nence o objects, New York artist JamieIsenstein presents a room o objects onre in House o Hot. For the exhibition,Isenstein transorms various tchotchkes,including cookie jars, Jell-o molds, nov-elty teapots, and porcelain gurinesinto unctioning oil lamps. As productso mass-production gathered rom junkstores and garage sales, these objects areinconsequential and replaceable, yet maderom enduring, permanent materials. Un-like candles that melt when set on re, theseoil lamps are not consumed by the amesthey sustain. Drawing on Isenstein's inter-est in immortality and the concept that artis supposed to last orever, these oil lampsreerence the uses o oil lamps in religious

establishments, burial memorials, and theOlympics as a way to invoke the realm oeternity. In addition, in response to the term

"nature morte," these oil lamps are groupedin clusters o still-lies with the ames en-livening and giving presence to the staticobjects. In the back gallery, presented like agreenhouse ull o plants are Flowers o Evil,a series o photographs documenting ow-ers ocially registered with sinister namessuch as Ghost rain, Anvil o Darkness, andArmageddon. Tis relates the owers tothe historical art tradition o using owers

as symbols or mortality; the price o eachower is displayed below the name suggest-ing that even death is or sale.

Jamie Isenstein: (above) Flowers of Evil, video installation ofphotographs; (images on right) two selections from the House

of Hotexhibition. Courtesy of Joshua White/Michael Benevento.

Judith Foosaner& Carlo MarcucciLora Schlesinger Santa Monica

[through July 9]

Step in ime, a new exhibition by Bay Areaartist Judith Foosaner, eatures black andwhite abstract paintings and collages. Foo-saner's work commences with a delicate linethat evolves into bold complex orms andcompositions. In her painting, Kiss, organicorms resembling leaves oat gently within

elds o rich black paint. Similar shapes areound and transormed into puzzle-like col-lages in Pursuit. Te uidity and rhythmo each shape is disrupted, cut and thenmounted on canvas, resulting in even moreelaborate compositions. Te interplay be-tween light and dark, consistent throughout

her work, accents the shadows o the linesand shapes that encompass the entire can-vas. With her signature style, her new workcontinues to exude energy and ervor. TeEast gallery will eature Wheatelds, wall-mounted sculptures by Los Angeles basedartist Carlo Marcucci. Te artist creates

smooth, minimal sculptures by mountingdry pasta side by side in rows creating anillusion o wood or mosaics. Some o thesculptures are designed in multiple sectionsand others include intersecting structuresmade o transparent Plexiglas, changing thenature o the pasta itsel.

Rachel HarrisonRegen ProjectsLos Angeles

[through July 10]

New York artist Rachel Harrison's practiceincludes sculpture, painting, collage, pho-tography, video and installation. Her work

is consistently layered, creating a multiplic-ity o meaning and perspectives, engagingthe viewer both visually and conceptually.Investigating space, time, and context, theworks redene existing terms between im-ages and orms while positing alternate re-lationships to consider. Playing with color,objecthood, and language, Harrison con-stitutes analogies that lead to new thoughtsand investigations. Tis exhibition Asdkl; presents six sculptural works composed

o statuesque abstract orms painted andcombined with ready-made objects. Tesesculptures are complex amalgamations that

resemble monuments but arecompletely non-reerential.Te title (Asdfkl;) describesthe standard placement o one'sngers when typing. It is men-tally tactile, as it speaks to themoment when one is just aboutto touch an object. Te rapidlychanging relationship to writ-ing produced by the aid o ma-chines is central to this title.

Carlo Marcucci, Wheatfelds LXII (62), 2udon noodles, squid ink spaghetti, regular ghetti, salmon spaghetti on plexiglas, 14.5x9

Rachel Harrison,Asdfjkl; (installation view). Courtesy RegenProjects, Los Angeles. Photograph by Brian Forrest.


20/3220 A|C|A June 2010

EXHIBITIONS

Lael CorbinLuis De JesusSanta Monica[through June 26]

In this new show, Greetings rom Earth, LaelCorbin compels us again to redene ourunderstanding and relationship to material

reality. akinghis cues rom thespace programso the late 1970s,like NASAs Voy-ager spacecraand its GoldenRecord, Corbinexamines ideasand ways inwhich we mightc o m m u n i c a t ewith extrater-restrial lie. Heoers an instal-lation o specic

images and objects that draw upon bothnarrative and poetic relationships to lan-guage, while evoking such notions as his-

tory, science, space, and time, as wellplay, curiosity, and wonder. Corbin has quently dealt with language through the o able, allegory, narrative, and poetry, ploring how ctitious or inanimate objecan convey precept or truth, and calling iquestion the very materials and methodogies that orm, what he calls, the multituo other conceptual rameworks that shaour perception today. Tis has led himexperiment with a broad range o methoand unconventional materials, employa strategy in which research, building, amanuacturing processes mix seamlestogether with dream-like imagery, rments o inormation, syntax, memory, acompeting timelines. Stripped o a normcontext, objects and processes that, at glance may appear amiliar, in the end o

us to question how these orms t into olarger consciousness.

Teo GonzlezBrian GrossSan Francisco[through July 3]

Tese new minimalist paintings by the NewYork artist Teo Gonzlez were achieved bythe artist methodically painting thousandso tiny dots in loosely gridded arrange-ments. Subtle variations in the size, den-sity, and placement o the orms result inshiing, dynamic compositions that engage

and captivate the viewer. Te paintings onview present a new direction in Gonzlezsworking method. Previously, the artist ap-plied paint to the canvas in tiny droplets us-ing an emulsion that orces the pigment tothe outer edge as it dries. Le behind were

ghost-like traces that call to mind varionatural orms, such as cells, stars, eyes, egand molecules. In his new works, Gonzamimics the residual orms by painting shapes directly instead o using dropleteliminating the element o chance inherin the dropping method and giving the a

ist greater control o the creative procTe result is vacillating abstract elds tare at once meticulously precise and rhymically organic, possessing a vital enethat gives them a lie o their own.

Jeff Adams & Younhee PaikBraunstein/Quay San Francisco

[through June 26]

In his recent paintings, Jef Adams createslevels o physicality by incorporating a va-riety o mixed media onto his canvases, us-ing everything rom acrylic, oil, and jute,to burlap, asphalt and plaster. However, hisis a "material with no implied or inerredmeanings." Instead, Adams' paintings high-light the artist's interest in achieving a workthat is highly subjective. Viewers react tohis paintings with sensorial responses or"the silence o an action" as Adams calls it while others could eel they are devoid omeaning. Adams builds upon the at sur-ace o canvases that hinge on the nuanceso the gure and memories o landscapes,

and through varied brushwork and textuhighlight action. Younhee Paik, an arparticipating in the ACCESS Program, rives inspiration rom nature and the cstant challenge o nding ones place in vastness o time, space, and beyond. "Ito explore and express my ever expaning perception o the relationship betwethe physical and the spiritual," writes PaMany o the images in her work are memries rom her childhood in a Korean ing village: the waves o the ocean, shipsthe water, and stars at night. Floor planscathedrals and the geometry o New Yhigh rises also play a role in her painting

Lael Corbin, Brn-77, 2010, wood, glass,shoes, audio and video recordings, 48x12x18.

Teo Gonzalez, Untitled 593, 2010, acrylic oncanvas over board, 78 x 78.

Younhee Paik, St. Peter Rotunda, 2008, oil oncanvas, 50 x 54.


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EXHIBITIONS

Tis show includes a new installation, In-verse Studies, eaturing twenty-our oil andencaustic paintings. Tey represent a depar-ture rom Amy Ellingsons established scale(all works are 16 x 12 inches) and method-ology o predetermining all elements o herpaintings via digital technology. Te works

are indicative o a rediscovery and integra-tion o a more intuitive painting method,

Wonder Box, a solo show o Matthew Pal-ladino's latest paintings, reerences a 19thcentury viewing device that contained ex-otic scenes that a small audience could seethrough a peephole or a nominal ee. It isin this vein that Palladino's new paintingsare presented, a contemporary peep show

where ideas o morality are disoriented andrecongured in a playul ashion. Te pieceslack any clear moral compass, causing the

Frederick Hayes & Ernest JPatricia SweetowSan Francis

[through June 26]

contrasted with Ellingsons amiliar geo-metric module. In Summer Frieze, worksare presented in a linear installation, withthe paintings placed at irregular intervalsover a varying progression o laser-cut vi-nyl elements, composed in situ. Tis layer-ing beautiully highlights the juxtaposition

o colors employed in both the paintingsand the vinyls.

Amy EllingsonHaines San Francisco[through July 10]

Matthew PalladinoBaer RidgwaySan Francisc

[through June 12]

viewer to investigate the images' ideologi-cal content through the unique lens o theirown experience. Te gallery door becomesthe hole and, once entered, the viewer iswithin the Wonder Box or a peek at theartist's distorted scenes o the erotic, spiri-tual, and mundane. Not unlike a private

dancer at a peep show, these pieces, paintedup and protected by a layer o glass ask theviewer to look, but don't touch.

Frederick Hayes' latest exhibition, Cityscape:Drawings, Installation, and Painting, con-tinues his exploration o Arican Americanportraiture and urban landscape using char-coal and paint. Hayes's exhibition takes theviewer on a walk through his city albeita ctionalized city lled with aces bothknown and unknown, billowing cloud or-mations over geometric urban cityscapes,and detailed brick acades o massive archi-tecture. His subjects are never accidental,but rather thoughtul and provocative, pro-viding a rich portrait o urban lie. "I havean undeniable interest in portraiture, theArican American experience, the workingclass, and the sort o learned approach to artmaking that maniests itsel in various guis-es and disguises," says Hayes. Also on dis-play is the work o artist Ernest Jolly, who

combines his musical background with vi-sual artistry in unique ways. Jolly's explo-ration o material and orm is inspired by

social and eco-logical issues.His installa-tions bring to-gether sculp-ture, sound,and light, us-ing commonbuilding mate-rials like con-crete, wood,and wire. In

Just Of Shore,Ernest Jolly collaborates with M. ChrisEvans, a cellist, who combined a variety osounds with Jolly's video projection o ahazy coastline and oreground sculpturesthat suggest a pier and broken boat. Tecombination creates a serene installation

that also alludes to the decay and aban-donment o man-made materials.

California Contemporart Art is a publication ofAmerican Contemporary Art magazine.

(left) Frederick Hayes, Cedrick, 2009, acrylicanvas, 14 x 11. (right) Ernest Jolly,AlcheI(detail), 2010, mixed media, 46x117x46

Matthew Palladino, The Rapture, 2010, acink on paper, 49x 37.

Amy Ellingson,Inverse Study #1, 2009, oiland encaustic on panel, 16 x 12 x .875.Courtesy of Haines Gallery, San Francisco.


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EXHIBITIONSMUSEUMS

Museums 2

Combining art and architecture, thir-ty-three Caliornia artists including DonEd Hardy, Shag, Paul Frank, and SandowBirk will install their art shacks at LagunaArt Museum. Most shacks will be open tovisitors, and some will include interactive

components such as music and lm.

Abandoning the rules o the art mar-ket and pressure to create work to sell, artshacks allow the artists to create an ex-periential environment, narrowing thedistinction between art and unction, ob-ject and environment. Tough ew o theincluded artists have any direct experi-ence with living in shacks, they are pres-ent in their collective memory through

post-apocalyptic lms like District 9 orchildhood games like MASH (Mansion-

Apartment-Shack-House). Along thewest coast, locals are quite amiliar withsur shacks, date shacks, and iki-in-spired shacksromantic, boutique-likebungalows or the leisure visitor.

Architecturally, a shack is the lowestorm o construction, meant to serve themost basic or immediate needs. By deni-tion, a shack is a place o disrepair madeo the most humble scrap materials likeplywood, corrugated metal, and plastic.

According to the United Nations, morethan one billion people (one-sixth othe world's population) live in slumsasettlement made o shacks. In every senseo the word, a shack is temporal. It evenimplies to the more humorous, subver-sive, and misbehavedto "shack up"or

Combining Art and ArchitectureART SHACKS INVADE LAGUNA ART MUSEUM

abandon social norms and "shack upthe mountains."

As part o the exhibition, Don Hardys at Cat Shack (attoo Hut) weature an activated tattoo machine. Gillette studied slums in India as the spiration or his art shack, while MarWeber's shack will eature a Super 8 Te Red Nurse and the Snowman. CrStecyk will have a small shack on the ro the museum only visible through security camera monitors, and KenSchar will have a trailer shack thatll o

be shown at the opening night recepti

Ultimately, the artists in this exhibitdey the norms o rules set against thequestioning the modes o mass prodtion, social restrictions, and perhglobal capitalism.

Art Shacks: (top left) Marnie Weber; (bottom left) Jason Maloney (right) Kenny Schar

Art Shackwill be exhibited at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CAfrom June 13 through October 3. Te opening night reception is June 12.


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ARTISTS

Im an artist that is heavily inuencedby psychological thought and theories,especially those o Carl Jung. I denemy artwork as,Te Art o Chaos, anart process which is derived through animplementation o my belies, whereinthe objective is to produce art that has noconscious beginning, but achieves dis-tinctive end results. In theory, Chaos

makes no predictions and appears as astate o disorder, making it very sensitiveto its initial conditions. In other words, anumber o variations in the initial condi-tion produces a chaotic dynamic systemthat leads to even larger variations insubsequent behaviors. Art, on the otherhand, is the process o deliberately orinadvertently arranging elements andobjects in a way that aects our subcon-scious or unconscious mind.

Te unconscious is the area o mind thatstores collected inormation that has beenrepressed and is not easily brought to ourawareness. Tese repressed memoriescan be episodes o trauma, or even sim-ple thought patterns, desires, and senseimpressions that remain ar below theaccessible surace. Tey are in essence,inaccessible without psychoanalysis, butcan drive and control the conscious mindthrough artistic orms o expression. It is

believed that a thought derived in a state

o consciousness is protected by our egos.Jung views the ego as our sense o sel andhow we portray ourselves to the world.Our egos put limitations on our real sel,which only emerges in dreams. Tis isa time when our unconscious mind letsgo o the ideals and deense mechanismsthat we hold to protect us rom thosethings we eel make us vulnerable andaraid.

Jung believed that all things can be

viewed as binaries, such as, good/evil,male/emale, love/hate, and black/white.Working in opposition to the ego, is the"counter-ego," or what he reers to as theshadow. Te shadow represents the rejected aspects o ourselves, those thingswe do not wish to acknowledge. It is here,In Shadows, that I wish to create. Us-ing Black and White, I strip down theegos illusions o sel to a primitive state.Using variations o color would be my

egos role o manipulating the artworkand thus creating an illusion o sel, or anideal o what art should be - an imita-tion o lie. Te end result o such think-ing is a world o art that is merely a slightmisrepresentation o another. o stiethe egos inuence is to unleash the un-conscious mind, allowing pure thoughtsto emerge, thoughts that aect art in away that has not been brought to light butmerely lingered below the surace waitingto be harvested by our dreams.

According to Jung, dreams are a way ocommunicating and acquainting yourselwith the unconscious. Dreams are not at-tempts to conceal your true eelings romthe waking mind, but rather they are awindow to your unconscious. Tey serveto guide the waking sel to achieve whole-ness and oer a solution to the problemsthat arise. Dreams shi and sway in a waythat is not completely controlled by our

conscious mind, revealing strange

chetypes and metaphors in place o coscious thoughts.

Nietzsche said, "You must have Chwithin you to give birth to a dancstar. I create Chaos when I approacblank canvas with a clear mind, when only intentions are to unleash movemeTrough this process, I gain the reedthats lost within an immediate objectand I nd that my hands will solve a mtery that my intellect has struggled w

in vain. By avoiding the path, but goinstead where there is none, and thleaving a trail is one way to produce that is dierent, that is personal; art treveals a true sense o sel in every pie

Franoise Sagan once said, Art must treality by surprise. Trough the ArtChaos, reality is lost in a dream. It is hthat we can oat, where we can escthe constraints o the world, bypass n

tions o rhyme and reason. My art is lwith archetypes, subconscious omissioshiing realms o terror and conusiAs shapes progress across the canvas, athe lines collide with one another, jlike a dream, awareness brings revelatiothat have been waiting to emerge. Belong, aces, places, things orm rom shadows to reveal a subconscious pgression o thoughts. Upon a closer loone can see there is order in chaos, this beauty in the mundane. Ultimately,

artist is not a person endowed with will who seeks his own ends, but one wallows art to realize its purpose withthemselves.

For more inormation about Angela Lthia Elleson, visit raisedinblack.com.

EMBRACING THE CHAOS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

Angela Lynthia Ellefson: (above) Under TheSea; (right page) Solar Plexus. Both works:2010, black ink on acrylic paper, 12x9.

Angela Lynthia Ellefson


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ARTISTS

This latest series is a return to sculp-ture while exploring my obsession with

line and love o drawing. Te Styrooampieces in their original shapes (no cut-ting involved) dictate the design. It tapsinto a subconscious, spontaneous way oworking that is devoid o the prior, sel-conscious need to tackle big issues didac-tically. I eel that not being so obvious inmeaning (as in my past series) makes thiswork stronger. Tis material was oncedebris, cushioning the ar superior itemthat was desired. Here, the roles havebeen reversed, elevating this material to

Jaime Scholnick

"Art" while the initial object it held has oreventually will become the reuse.

Tis desire to push my work to newlevels energizes me. I think it was DeKooning who emphasized that it is para-mount or an artist to reinvent herselover and over again to keep it resh. Tepresent work eels amiliar but isn't. Cer-tainly there are the obvious reerences toDubuet or any number o artists thathave used Styrooam. At the same timethe work is unlike anything that has pre-ceded it. Some pieces are architectural

but that isn't my ocus either. Tere idesire to transorm the reuse and nsimply use it as ound. Te Duchampideal "any object becomes art becaussay so" is an outdated paradigm.

I am always most satised with wothat is open-ended allowing the viewto make their own comparisons and nrative meanings. I contemporary art ects current dialogues then the very o this material as the inception or creative work encompasses a ull sptrum o ideas and belies that I hold.

Jaime Scholnick is represented by CBGallery in Los Angeles. For more info

mation, visit cb1gallery.com.

Jaime Scholnick:(left) 2 Towers, 2009,styrofoam, blackgesso, acrylic paint,62x24x9.(right) PS: Red Cross,2009, styrofoam,gesso, acrylic paint,22x10.5x 8

IN HER OWN WORDS


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Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

January 13 - 16, 2011The longest running art fair in Los Angeles and

the largest photography art fair in the country,

is celebrang its 20th anniversary this January.

Sponsors and adversers who wish to celebrate

or partner on this special event can email:

[email protected]

photola.com


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TheAbstractWorksof

NA T A L I E G R A Y

T H E

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H A P P E N I N G

M A R I N A D E L R E Y

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D r e a m w e a v e r 1 8 x 2 4 N o w a v a i l a b l e i n a l i m i t e d e d i t i o n p r i n t

Jun2-Jun30ReceptionSatJun126-9pm

PartofTheHappeningGallerySummerFineArtShow

FeaturingTenAstoundinglyTalentedArtists
mailto:info%40thehappeninggallery.com?subject=Re%3A%20Ad%20in%20California%20Contemporary%20Arthttp://www.thehappeninggallery.com/http://www.facebook.com/thehappeninggalleryhttp://www.thehappeninggallery.com/mailto:info%40thehappeninggallery.com?subject=Re%3A%20Ad%20in%20California%20Contemporary%20Art


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