Thursday, November 29, 2018

Artist Spotlight: Shelley Lazarus -- H2O works

Shelley Lazarus, Wild Sky, Watercolor, 12 x 12"
“No matter where I find myself; looking up at clouds, watching the ocean, looking down at rooftops, or just a set up in my studio, the fluidity and immediacy of watercolor bring out my first impressions. My love affair with watercolor first began during my travels in the 1970s and has never wavered. But never the purist I love to add other mediums to my works always looking for new ways to express my visions.
Shelley Lazarus, The Road, Watercolor, 12 x 12"
Spending weekends going back and forth from LA to Ventura I have begun an adventure with clouds and ocean waves. The patterns of the clouds and their effect on the landscape are just what my watercolors were made for. In this show I have tried to portray the clouds and waves on different surfaces.
Shelley Lazarus, The Sky Above Water, Watercolor, 16 x 13"
Clouds Got In the Way is a song my son was very fond of. This exhibition is dedicated to his memory and to the Robert David Lazarus Pulmonary Unit at Cedar-Sinai Hospital. The proceeds from this show will go to that unit.”
-Shelley Lazarus
Shelley Lazarus, Trois Fleurs, Watercolor, 18 x 22"
Shelley has been teaching at the Brentwood Art Center for over 25 years and is one of the founding members of TAG.

The Exhibition runs through Saturday December 15
Reception: Saturday, December 1, 5­-8 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 15, 3pm

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Artist Spotlight: Joe Pinkelman -- America

Joe Pinkelman, This Land is Our Land (White Immigrants First), Ceramic, 22 x 19 x 20"
TAG presents America, a new body of work by ceramicist Joe Pinkelman.
Pinkelman was strongly influenced by two books, We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi. The books examine historical and current racism in America.
Joe Pinkelman, I Promise To Be Double (White) Good (Standards for White Folk Are Much Lower), Ceramic, 22 x 13 x 12"
Pinkelman only begins to scratch the surface of the deplorable treatment that black Americans have received since the 17th century. His examination is further limited because it comes from a white male for who the US system was tailored.
Joe Pinkelman, In Memory of Trayvon Martin (My Blood is Red Like Yours), Ceramic, 22 x 20 x 3"
As there are too many to count or list, this body of work tries to collectively visualize a portion of egregious actions.
Joe Pinkelman, Incarceration is the New Plantation (Change the Criminal Justice Code), Ceramic, 22 x 13 x 12"
The Exhibition runs through Saturday December 15
Reception: Saturday, December 1, 5­-8 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 15, 3pm

Monday, November 19, 2018

Current Exhibition: Deborah Decker, Shelley Lazarus, Joe Pinkelman

Tuesday November 20 -­ Saturday December 15
Reception: Saturday, December 1, 5­-8 p.m.

Artist Talk: Saturday, December 15, 3pm

Deborah Decker -- Memory
Deborah Decker, Night Ride, Graphite on Paper, 48 x 105"

Shelley Lazarus -- H2O works
Shelley Lazarus, Ventura Hills, Watercolor, 12 x 21"
Joe Pinkelman -- America
Joe Pinkelman, I Can’t Breathe (In Memory Of Eric Garner), Ceramic, 8” x 18” x 12”

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Artist Spotlight: Damon Reinagle - Hidden Agendas

TAG Gallery presents Hidden Agendas, a series of works by painter Damon Reinagle. Reinagle has been a surreal aficionado, with admiration for the dream-like vistas of Marc Chagall and Salvador Dali. This coupled with his love for the magical swirling colors and imagery of Yoshitaka Amano, has inspired Damon to explore patterns and symbols that evoke decadence and decay, but at the same, joy and hopefulness.

With his doll head series, Reinagle depicts his characters with a classical feel as though the porcelain-like portraits are ageless, yet fragile in nature. Often set against crumbling, depleted architectural facades, the heads suggest that there may be a silver lining after all, with a delicate butterfly or hummingbird about.

Reinagle’s use of a heart as both a romantic symbol as well as a negative shape emerging from tangled thorns, presents the viewer with the dichotomy of good versus evil, growth versus decay. The heart as a suspended mass of molten lava begs the questions, how sustainable is our planet? Will the delicate balance of survival continue to be threatened by man’s greed for materialism or will he wake up to the warnings of over population, climate change and lack of potable water?

The suspended lava heart, the fragile doll heads and the recurring theme of fish out water, all echo nature’s vulnerability to the hidden agendas of humanity.

The show runs through November 17.
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 10th, 3 PM

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Artist Spotlight: Camey McGilvray - Wire World

Camey McGilvray, Boogie-Woogie Dancers, Powder-coated rebar, 70 x 24 x 18"
Artistic concepts are taken down to the wire in artist Camey McGilvray’s latest series, Wire World. In this series of McGilvray’s work, hard-edge rules and line is everything. Starting with the first pen and ink rendering of an idea, McGilvray works and reworks, edits and polishes until the desired effect is achieved. Visual references are simplified and in some cases totally abandoned. Line is then translated into steel wire, welded and powder-coated into a three-dimensional existence.
Camey McGilvray, The Ladies (Picasso Homage), Powder-coated steel, 54 x 48 x 3"
McGilvray’s The Ladies, homage to Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, is scaled down to essential lines but succeeds in expressing the integrity and concept of the original piece. Wire World functions and exists in this way, further abstracting the abstracted and offering a stripping down to the bare essentials.
Camey McGilvray, Wired IV, Powder-coated steel, 68 x 46 x 3"

McGilvray skillfully uses the visual language of line to give life to what was once only imagined and to indeed create a Wire World.
Camey McGilvray, Rush Hour, Powder-coated rebar, LED, 70 x 38 x 4"
The show runs through November 17.
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 10th, 3 PM