Artist Spotlight: Deborah Decker -- Memory

Deborah Decker

TAG presents Memory, a series of drawings by Deborah Decker. Decker considers herself a figurative artist, however in these works, non-representation provided her with a broader dialogue from which to develop a separate code of psychological schisms, complexities and energy. Therefore, abstraction affords her the opportunity to physically translate memories directly into optical information.

Deborah Decker

"The visceral feelings of the graphite across the paper, the stretch of my arm, the full movement of my body, the push and flow of the graphite became a catalyst in igniting haunting memories of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse which seem to now be a part of my DNA.

Deborah Decker, I Don't Know, Graphite and pastel on paper, 16 x 45"

With insidious cunning the deep and haunting memories again bubble up into my consciousness as I relive them with each stroke. Time and events merge and awaken in flashes of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, which I am never seem to be able to bury deep enough. Then perhaps a touch, a sound, or a word, and like an old friends they simple call to reminisce."

Deborah Decker

The Exhibition runs through Saturday December 15
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 15, 3pm

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

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

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”

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

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

Artist Spotlight: Katie Crown - Waterworks

Katie Crown, Impending Zoom, Watercolor and gouache, 32 x 37"

TAG Gallery is proud to present Waterworks, a series of works by Katie Crown. This series stretches what can be achieved with watercolor paint. You will not find traditional watercolors here. Seeing these mainly non-objective paintings provides direct sensory excitement. “I hope viewers feel like they’ve just gotten off a roller coaster. Watercolor works for this. I love the free feeling that watercolor allows, finding its own surprising, unexpected forms as it dries,” Crown says.

Katie Crown, Mountain Bubblebath, Watercolor and gouache, 47.5 x 49"

Using water-soluble pigments in non-traditional ways, the colors are intensely saturated and expressive. Crown juxtaposes patterns to build excitement, such as combinations of angular and circular shapes that deliver strong masculine and feminine energies. She sometimes puts her brushes away and sprays the paint to get a wild edge reminiscent of graffiti.

Katie Crown, Sedona Arizona, Watercolor and gouache, 31.5 x 38.75"

Crown is a native of Southern California. Some of her abstract watercolors, such as “Memory of the South Bay,” draw from her experiences growing up in Manhattan Beach in the 1950s and ‘60s. Some paintings in this show started out decades ago as landscapes and have now been reworked and enlarged into non-objective works that celebrate the art of painting. “Sometimes I add paper to expand my statement until the painting cries, ‘Mercy,’ she says. “I want my paintings to be visually exciting in and of themselves.”

Katie Crown, Memory of South Bay, Watercolor and gouache, 32.25 x 38.25"

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

Artist Spotlight: Go Woon Choi -- Metaphor

Go Woon Choi, Untitled 02, Oil, 40 x 30"

Metaphor is a collection of new paintings by Korean-born artist Go Woon Choi investigating the beauty and possibilities of everyday objects. The idea came from interpreting interesting forms comprised of light and shadows of common objects around her. This exploration led Choi to crumpled foils and eventually to make compositions with what she calls abstract metals.

Go Woon Choi, Untitled 04, Oil, 40 x 30"

“If someone were to ask me why I paint metal, I would say I love the strong feeling and my one of my old past times was welding sculpture. I will continue to work on these series to make more layers or more variety shapes or colors.”

Go Woon Choi, Untitled 09, Oil, 40 x 30"

Choi’s interest in common objects is rooted in her idea that “even common objects can appear strong and fantastic under different light conditions and environments”. She transforms ordinary objects into extraordinary visual experiences, with repetition and variation. The light changes on the surfaces to give an impression of constant motion. Sharing the process of their becoming, ordinary objects can provoke intense emotions of strength and energy.

Go Woon Choi, Untitled 06, Oil, 30 x 40"

The show runs through November 17.
Reception: Saturday, October 27, 5-8 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 10th, 3 PM

Current Exhibition: Go Woon Choi, Katie Crown, Camey McGilvray, Damon Reinagle

October 23 – November 17, 2018
Reception: Saturday, October 27, 5-8 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 10th, 3pm

Go Woon Choi - Metaphor

Go Woon Choi, Untitled 01, Oil, 30 x 48

Katie Crown - Waterworks

Katie Crown, Fly Away, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 47 x 41"

Camey McGilvray - Wire World

Camey McGilvray, Rapunzel, Powder coated steel, 75 x 30 x 3"

Damon Reinagle - Hidden Agendas

Damon Reinagle, Her Royal Magesty, 32 x 18

Artist Spotlight: Marion Wood - Field Notes

Marion Wood, Tryptic, Acrylic, 60 x 60"

TAG Gallery is proud to present Field Notes, a series of paintings from Marion Wood focusing on the simplest elements of artistic expression. In order to capture and depict delicate terrains, Wood experiments with color fields and the use of gravity as a catalyst to portray the force of nature that pulls the rain to the roots within the earth.

Marion Wood, The Three, Acrylic

“I often find myself bombarded with technology. Cellphones, internet, social media, news media, and a president who tweets his every whim; It causes me to seek introspection, solitude and solace in nature, or a quiet space to ruminate. Personal reflection and self-assessment are the tools I use to keep my head amidst the constant bombardment. By looking within ourselves we intuitively know how to treat out fellow humans of any race, gender, or economic stature, and how to protect our environment.”

Marion Wood, A New Day, Acrylic, 48 x 60"

"There is an overwhelming sense of peace when I see and experience something raw and beautiful in the wilderness and I strive to wander through these canvases with that same connection, an excitement toward life and hope for the future."

Marion Wood, Winter Forest, Acrylic, 72 x 48"

The exhibition runs through October 20.
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 13, 3pm

Artist Spotlight: Sunhee Joo - Message of Love

Sunhee Joo, Return of the Prodigal Son, Digital painting on paper, 9.5 x 7.5"

Sunhee Joo’s first solo exhibition at TAG Gallery features poetic digital works on paper, featuring her favorite subjects: God, humanity, and nature. This exhibition is a compilation of her digital work since 2011.

Sunhee Joo, Gethsemane, Digital painting on paper, 5 x 9"

Sunhee Joo’s works have evolved since her MFA in Abstract Painting at UCLA in 1987. Her work is a mixture of abstract and representational forms, marrying her unique expression of Bible stories and people with nature. Joo aims to convey her soul searching spiritual journey in America after her immigration in 1970, showcasing her bicultural heritage, the East and the West.

Sunhee Joo, Mother and Children, Digital painting on paper, 12 x 10"

The exhibition, Message of Love, evokes layers of memories, emotions, and feelings. Joo conveys these many facets of love through depiction of different people in real life, characters in the Bible, or imagined people with simplified lines, shapes and colors.

Sunhee Joo, Mother Washing, Digital painting on paper, 6 x 6"

The exhibition runs through October 20.
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6, 5-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 13, 3pm

Artist Spotlight: Cheryl Dimant - Looking Closer

Cheryl Dimant, Clear Blue Day, Archival print on paper

TAG Gallery is proud to present Looking Closer a body of work by photographer Cheryl Dimont. The exhibition uses photography as a catalyst to investigate the various nuances and complex structures of the natural and man-made worlds.

Cheryl Dimant, Sky Scraper Sky, Archival print on paper

Dimont has always subscribed to the belief that beauty can be found everywhere in life. As such, she atttempts to cut through the periphery and concentrate on what really matters.

Cheryl Dimant, See Me, Archival print on paper

“I see pockets of design and pattern everywhere. They add a spark to my day. They give me little moments of quiet and help me find some order within the chaos.”

Cheryl Dimant, Salmon Run, Archival print on paper

The exhibition runs through October 20.
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6, 5-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 13, 3pm

Artist Spotlight: Elyse Wyman - Signs of the Times

Elyse Wyman, Fire In the Belly, Mixed media bas-relief, 32 x 15 x 4"

Elyse Wyman’s new body of work continues her exploration of the interrelationships and dynamics of female identity, self-perception, personal worth, sexuality and power. Through the medium of transparent bas-relief sculpture, she presents the female torso as both physical and psychological container, fusing separate entities to reveal things we often take for granted. Her ongoing scrutiny of the female figure intersects squarely with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

Elyse Wyman, Stop Abuse, Mixed media bas-relief, 32 x 15 x 4"

Seemingly ordinary road and warning signs such as “Stop” or “Rough Road” take on new meaning when placed inside the female form. This juncture of disparate elements leads to new interpretations. Wyman’s mixed-media sculptures illuminate a deeper, generally hidden emotional intensity often alluding to harassment both visible and unseen.

Elyse Wyman, Rough Road, Mixed media bas-relief, 32 x 15 x 4"

Elyse Wyman was born in Los Angeles and received her BA in Fine Arts (Cum Laude) from UCLA. She furthered her art education in Paris, France at the Academie de La Grande Chaumiere. Ms. Wyman has pursued parallel careers in both fine arts and graphic design. As a graphic artist for A&M records she designed albums, posters, music books, advertising and billboards. Currently, as art director and owner of DesignWorks, Unlimited Graphic Design Studio, her clients have included A&M Records, American Ballet Theatre, American Film Institute, ASCAP, Chevron, Disc Marketing, General Mills, UCLA, United Airlines, Toyota, Victoria’s Secret, Warner Brothers, Women in Film, and many others.

Elyse Wyman, Stop Abuse, Mixed media bas-relief, 32 x 15 x 4"

The exhibition runs through October 20.
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6, 5-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 13, 3pm