Artist Shout Out: Annie Lapin

According to Honor Fraser Gallery (LA), home of Annie Lapin’s latest solo exhibition entitled The Pure Space Animate, which opens May 21 and runs through July 9:

In a new group of paintings on canvas, Lapin’s luscious, high-energy compositions co-mingle painterly conventions of representation with an obliterating gestural abstraction. Lapin refers to specters of realism that haunt the abstraction in these richly layered paintings. In The Pure Space Animate, there is less occasion for the multi-figure groups and enigmatic narratives of previous works, with further prominence shifted to the intensive formal activity. The coherent scenic space and figural focal points which remain are yet more densely encircled and perforated by painterly forces that counteract their legibility, leaving the viewing experience characteristically unstable.

One seeks and temporarily sees indications of illusionistic space – a horizon line, a column, the shadow of a tree – only to find that it behaves instead the next moment as a collection of sinuous ribbons of paint bound to the surface. And it is this contrasting visual interpretation, this unresolved chord, that Lapin seeks to strike in the interest of a phenomenological experience of works as “constantly emerging” for the viewer. Essential to the expressiveness in Lapin’s paintings is the articulation of space. The artist has developed a palette of elemental forces extracted from a lineage of painting and visual culture of her own devising. These sets of formal relationships – such as a lilting perspective or a characteristic distribution of masses across the picture plane – are isolated from their sources and given new life as structuring forces for Lapin’s paralinguistic figures and spaces. In particular, a number of the works in The Pure Space Animate submit compositional conventions from sensuous Rococo landscapes to the gravitational pull of the pure relations of abstract painting…

See more of Lapin’s work here and here

Watch a video about Lapin and her work here

“The History or Hysterical Memory” 2010, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 inches

“Bi-cyclic and Tri-cyclic Romantics” 2009, Casein, acrylic, and egg tempera on panel, 48 x 72 inches

“Private Outdoor Facial Coronation” 2009, Casein and oil on panel, 33 x 47 inches

“Perverts” 2009. Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

Artist Shout Out: Jessica Harrison

Artist Statement (Excerpt):

The things I make are a complex description of simultaneous unmaking and making, deconstructing an object or a body before putting it back together again – this could be interpreted as a violent process, but is often a very delicate and fragile one, a process of transplantation rather than dislocation. The works are an attempt to change the relationship of the object to the body, making visible the invisible, opening up something normally closed, softening a usually hard surface.

I am exploring the significance of surfaces in our construction of knowledge through making and experimenting, playing on our instincts and assumptions built from an historical optical hierarchy and propensity to touch what catches our attention. Our surfaces do not just act as boundaries between our inside and outside, between ‘us’ and ‘that’, but play the most vital role in our perceptions of the world around us.  The objects I make attempt to unpack these perceptions and interrupt these interfaces to bring our assumptions to the surface.

From Harrison’s ”Breaking” series. All figures are mixed media.

Harrison’s sculptures, prints and drawings and  will be on display at the Jealous Gallery starting on April 28th.

See more of Harrison’s work here

Artist Shout Out: Augustina Woodgate

According to Augustina Woodgate:

Hand-sewn and designed rugs made from recycled teddy bears. The process starts with the departure of the loving life Teddy Bears have when they are in the hands of their owners.The rugs not only reference the personal histories of the toy’s owners, but investigate the rug as an object organizing and displaying memories and lineages. In Eastern Cultures, the oriental rug centralizes the living space in pattern, operating beyond utility to depict the spiritual and mental world in woven form.

“Royal” -  stuffed animal skins, 9′ x 7′, 2010

“Rose Petals” – stuffed animal skins, 8′ x 7′, 2010

Artist Statement:

I aim to create art that fosters exchanges between people rather than encounters between a viewer and object. Through these exchanges, meaning is elaborated collectively, rather than in the space of individual consumption.

My artistic practice investigates how stories, rituals and traditions transform our relationships with the objects and places around us. I create responses to social narratives through situations that unveil the tensions between the natural-becoming-unnatural, and the unnatural-becoming-natural. My work discovers illogical, surreal scenarios from otherwise realistic or “normal” settings, revealing unconscious transience in beliefs and behaviors between these two worlds.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, I now make my home in Miami, FL.

“Sand Castle” – human hair, 2′ x 3 ‘ x 3′, 2008

“Myself” – human Hair, wooden brush, 7″ x 5″, 2007

See more of Woodgate’s work here

Thanks to Kit Leffler for the tip. (Sorry it took so long.)

Artist Shout Out: Clark Goolsby

“At Rest” (detail)

“Terminus” – acrylic, spray paint & pencil on canvas, 45.5 x 36.75″

From the artist statement that accompanies Clark Goolsby‘s latest show STRANGE/LOVE which is on display through March 12 at the POVevolving Gallery:

In addition to the opaque geometric forms of his previous work, he has added a wide range of figurative elements including human forms, animals, and structures ~ all of which bare the clear identity of being created by the artists hand. While much of the paint used is acrylic, the range of materials in these recent works varies widely, including pens, pencils, markers, and spray paints. In many cases the materials now speak as direct reference to the physicality of the objects they are depicting. All around, the new work is a wonderful progression from his first show with us in 2009.

STRANGE/LOVE will be comprised of a mix of new sculptures and paintings, and for the centerpiece of the exhibition, Clark has constructed an 18ft. long skeletal figure from wood and foam that is suspended by hundreds of colored strings. This piece is the artists’ most significant work to date.

When asked about the conceptual basis for the show, Clark emailed us this as a point of departure for viewing the work: “Overall the whole show is about death and the fragility of life. I am specifically interested in how we maintain optimism in a world that is so full of potentially life ending situations. I have been using the Dead Hand (a doomsday device the Russians built during the Cold War), and many other symbols as metaphors for reflecting on these ideas…”

“Untitled” – mixed media on linen over panel, 18 x 18″

“Trophy” – acrylic, spray paint & pencil on canvas, 45 x 35.5″

See more of Goolsby’s work here

Artist Shout Out: Erik Mark Sandberg

Erik Mark Sandberg was born in 1975 in Farmington, Minnesota, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

From the artist statement that accompanies Sandberg’s latest solo show with Johnathon LeVine Gallery (NY) entitled Get Pretty Now, which is on display through February 19:

Sandberg’s portrait series depicts anomalous figures whose features are obscured by a thick coat of colorful hair, wearing fluorescent-colored clothing with loud, graphic prints. His abstract paintings are equally striking, vibrant and texturally rich, complementing hues and patterns of the hairy subjects in his figurative works.

Cultural dichotomies are a source of inspiration for much of Sandberg’s imagery, and his use of hair is (in a broad sense) a visual metaphor for their effects. In the artist’s own words: “My work investigates the psychological effects of trying to achieve smoke and mirror standards of beauty, standards that run in opposition to contemporary mass-consumed food advertising.” His bold color choices, while mainly intuitive decisions, also offer conceptual reinforcement. On the subject of palette, the artist says: “Fluorescents and neons have a very manufactured, artificial quality. They’re exotic, living outside of the normal spectrum.”

Thematically, the artist explores consumer culture, celebrity idolatry and social dysfunction in the digital age, with a focus on the relationship between projected idealized archetypes and their unattainable emulation.

See more of Sandberg’s work here

“Boy with Sweater (Yellow)” – oil, airbrush, resin, glitter and silkscreen on panel

“Girl with Summer Fever (Black)” – front view