Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 7, 2013, 5-8 p.m.
Artist Talk:
Saturday, September 21, 2013, 3-4 p.m.
Lorraine Bubar, My Lovely Planet
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| Lorraine Bubar, No Turning Back, Papercut, 27 x 47 in., 2013 |
Artist Lorraine Bubar's current exhibition celebrates the beauty of the planet’s various ecosystems. From Antarctic landscapes filled with penguins and whales to the snakes and tortoises of the red rocky desert, Bubar’s papercuts are kaleidoscopes of bold color, texture, and depth. Bubar captures the diverse taxonomy of flora and fauna that make each natural environment unique. Other scenes convey the chaos of the modern world as freeway interchanges and construction spread across the Los Angeles and Santa Monica landscapes, transforming the natural world. Her intricate lacework of layered papers illustrates both the fragility and the strength of the paper medium, as well as the fragility and strength of these environments. Bubar develops the historic tradition of papercutting into an artistic one. The artist’s interest in papercutting developed out of a love of traveling the world, hiking in its mountains, and a desire to honor its diverse cultures through an art form that crosses the boundaries of culture, art, and craft.
Katie Crown, Audiences and Waiting Rooms
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| Katie Crown, Shades, Ceramic, wood, steel wool, 66 x 53 x 6", 2013 |
In her latest exhibition, artist Katie Crown fuses her art with commonly shared social experiences. Her current subjects - audiences and waiting rooms - are fueled by the feelings of both anticipation and humor that can arise from these environments. "My sculptures are like concrete cartoons that depict different moods," says Katie Crown. "I love to make people laugh." Fanciful faces sing and laugh in unison in Crown's colorful ceramic sculptures as comedy is embedded within their forms. Others portray the alienation of individuals within the crowd. "There's something intrinsically engaging about depicting groups," says Crown. "The question arises as to who is watching whom. The viewer is in the hot seat." According to Crown, her audience series was inspired by her visit to the archaeological museum in Athens, Greece, where she encountered rows of tiny marble and ceramic busts. Her waiting room series grew from the many doctor visits during her experience with cancer, and morphed into surrealistic fantasies. Both experiences allowed for intense social observation, providing a new perspective on the sculptural medium.
Pam Douglas, The Life of Air
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Pam Douglas, The Tree Stood Through It All, Inks and Mixed Media on Silk, 30 x 45", 2013
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After exhibiting widely this year at the African American Museum, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Gallery 417, and now TAG Gallery, artist Pam Douglas’ current show, The Life of Air: Paintings on Silk completes her series exploring Earth’s primal energies of water, fire, and air. Painting on silk panels, Douglas maneuvers inks and water-based media to seep through multiple layers. Unlike using traditional canvas, this technique creates a visual dimensionality that is simultaneously delicate and deep. “These new works experiment with transparencies where the motion of air flows through abstracted imagery. I chose air to explore the subtle power within an invisible energy,” says Douglas. “I also wanted to evoke the transparencies of our time where so much of life is permeable and fleeting.” These ethereal landscapes and abstractions explore the ways experimental materials transform the painting experience in a meditation on the veil between seen and unseen.
