C alifornia

ContemporaryART
APRIL/MAY 2011
 Marine Contemporary

Marine Contemporary Ricky Allman littlewhitehead

1733 — A Wendy Heldmann Bad News
Abbot Kinney Blvd Tom Hunter
Venice, CA Jow Debut U.S. solo show
90291 Dennis Koch
Littlewhitehead May 7 —
T: +1 310 399 0294 Peter Lograsso June 18, 2011
Christopher Michlig
Robert Minervini
Christopher Pate
Stephanie Pryor
Debra Scacco

marinecontemporary.com
 Photo: Patrick Hoelck
WARD OF THE STATE
Rick Castro, Greg Gorman, Patrick Hoelck, Steven Klein, Patrick Martinez
Maya Mercer, Michael Gregg Michaud, Jules Muck, Estevan Oriol, Retna
Herb Ritts, Paul Rusconi, Christoph Schmidberger, Robert Standish
Mr. Brainwash, Bruce Weber and Tony Ward

May 21-June 20, 2011

 BLEICHER GALLERIES
BGartDealings.com
info@bgartdealings.com

(Ann McCoy Feb /2011)

CB Gallery [Caporale/Bleicher] 355 N. La Brea Avenue, LA, CA 90036 (323) 545-6018

BG Gallery [Bleicher/Golightly] 1431 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 878-2784
 Alexandra Wiesenfeld, “Sheep Triptych”, 48 x 62", mixed media on paper, 2010

Alexandra Wiesenfeld
occASSionAl beAST
through April 30, 2011

2903 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90404 310-828-1912 www.gallerykmLA.com

Gallery Hours: Tue–Sat, 11am – 5pm or by appointment

 30

12 25
16
29
CONTENTS

Cover Image 28

28

28
31
21
30

28

35

27
39

38
29

30 PUBLISHER
36
Richard Kalisher
EDITOR
Donovan Stanley
DESIGN
Eric Kalisher

CONTRIBUTORS
31 Roberta Carasso
Jessie Kim

C alifornia
ContemporaryART
www.californiacontemporaryart.net
(323) 380-8916 | rkpublisher@gmail.com
8 Apr/May 2011
 EXHIBITIONS

MICHAEL SALVATORE TIERNEY

April 29th - May 2nd located at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart

Visit us at Booth 11-B

5797 Washington Boulevard | Culver City, California 90232 | 323.272.3642 | info@blytheprojects.net | blytheprojects.net
EXHIBITIONS

Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus by Hugo Anderson

Bauhaus and our very sense of what is modern

in twentieth century art and design are practically
synonymous. We are surrounded in our everyday
lives by the designs and theories put into practice
by the Bauhaus. While the school of the Bauhaus
existed only from 1919 to 1933, its principals and
influence resonate today because of the achieve-
ments of the artists and architects associated with
it: Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky,
Joseph Alpers, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-
Nagy, Warner Drewes and Herbert Bayer.
By definition Bauhaus means construction or
architecture (bau) and house (haus) in German. It
was the creation of Walter Gropius, who in 1919
assumed control of the Weimar School of the Arts
and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art.
He combined the two into the Weimar Bauhaus
School. It was Gropius’ intention to create a new
generation of craftsmen without the class distinc-
tions between craftsmen and artists. No doubt it

“No institution has affected the course of

twentieth century art and design so pro-
foundly as the Bauhaus. Its impact is stag-
gering. Bauhaus precedents provide sources
for everything from the appearance of our
urban skylines to the modern dinnerware on
our hard-edged, contemporary tables. They
are found in virtually every functionally de-
signed object and graphic today.”
- Gwen Chanzit
Curator,
12 HerbertApr/May
C|C|A Bayer Archive
2011at the Denver Art Museum
and Beyond
was an attempt to build something new and positive out
of the ashes of World War I when Gropius stated “Let us
desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future
together.”
The central concept was that no one art form was in-
herently better than any other and that the fine arts and
applied arts must be studied and used together. Through
good design the new artist/craftsman would create a better
world. The very fact that easel painting was replaced in the
curriculum by mural painting showed Gropius’ commit-
ment to integrate all the arts within architecture.
Of all of the artists associated with the Bauhaus during
its brief 15 years, it is Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) who actu-
ally devoted a lifetime to a career which incorporated the
ideal of total integration of the arts, in design, advertising,
architecture, public sculpture and painting.
Herbert Bayer was born April 5, 1900 in Haag am
Hausruch, Austria. Because of a book he read by Vassily
Kandinsky (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) he enrolled
at Weimar Bauhaus at the age of 21. He actually arrived
at the Bauhaus six months before Kandinsky began teach-
ing. Bayer studied at the Bauhaus for two years, taking a negatives and collage meshed well with Surrealist imagery,
leave in 1923 to travel through Italy. He had arrived at the as in self-portrait (1932), lonely metropolitan (1932), and
Bauhaus with almost no prior background in art, and thus metamorphosis (1936).
offered the perfect “blank slate” upon which to create the The later 1930’s were difficult times for free expression.
essential Bauhaus artist. Since the Bauhaus offered no art Artists were among the many groups who felt the need to
history in its curriculum it made sense to expand his first- find exile outside Nazi Germany. The Bauhaus had closed
hand knowledge of art architecture and design by spending in 1933 and many of its artists/faculty had already emigrat-
a year traveling in Italy, sketching and painting. To support ed to the United States, finding work teaching at Harvard
himself he painted houses and stage sets during his travels, and at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. Bayer had traveled to
thus applying the integration of craftsman and artist at the the U.S. in 1937 and became involved in the design of an
first opportunity. exhibition on the Bauhaus at the newly created Museum of
In 1925 he was offered a position on the faculty at the Modern Art. In 1938 he moved to New York City. Deposi-
Bauhaus, as Master of Typography. It was then, in conjunc- tion (1939) while depicting the tools of Christ’s crucifixion,
tion with the ideas of Moholy-Nagy, that Bayer developed a also portends the dark future of a Nazi victory in Europe, a
“universal alphabet” using only lower case letters. This was victory that seemed quite possible in 1939.
designed to be a practical typeface, which was large enough The exhibition Bauhaus 1919-1928 opened at the Mu-
to read and free of distortions and curlicues, sans-serif type. seum of Modern Art and later traveled around the United
Bayer applied this type design to ad copy, posters and books States. It provided an introduction to modernist design to
throughout his career. a country slow to accept abstraction in painting, much less
In 1928 Bayer left the Bauhaus to pursue a design ca- in advertising, which required client acceptance. During
reer in Berlin. It was his desire to put the theories of the his tenure in New York, Bayer’s graphic work prospered,
Bauhaus into practice in design and advertising. In 1933 but when the opportunity arose to move back to a moun-
he produced a “bayer type”. During his Berlin years, in ad- tain environment he took it, moving to Aspen, Colorado in
dition to his design work, Bayer ventured into photography, 1946. He accepted a position as design consultant for Wal-
which he used in both commercial (ads and posters) and ter Paepcke and the Container Corporation of America,
fine art production. With Maholy-Nagy, Hebert Bayer was whose headquarters were in Chicago.
an early creator of photoplastic or photomontage. The al- The Aspen of 1946 was a small mountain town of less
tering of photographic imagery through the use of multiple than 800 residents and only the beginnings of a ski town,

Feature 13
EXHIBITIONS
with two pre-war ski runs. Paepcke and Bayer were instru-
mental in initiating the changes that would make Aspen a
cultural oasis in the 1950’s and beyond. The Aspen Institute
for Humanistic Studies was founded by Paepcke in 1949,
with Herbert Bayer working as architect and design consul-
tant. He designed a complex of buildings for the institute,
integrated within the natural landscape of the mountain
valley. In 1955 he created a work called grass mound, a for-
ty foot grassy place for relaxation, years before the concept
of “earthworks” became popular. He also created marble
garden using discards from an old marble quarry. In 1963-
64 he designed a new tent for the Aspen Music Festival.
With his return to mountain living, mountains and
contour map elements began to emerge in his artwork from
the late 1940’s on, as in his lithograph mountains and lakes
(1948). He designed a series of ski posters, including ski
broadmoor (1959). In 1953 the Container Corporation
published world atlas with graphics designed by Herbert
Bayer. His goal was to put together an atlas with clean
graphics that was easy to read. The interaction between fine
art and commercial art again shows in Bayer’s paintings and
prints with continuing use of weather related symbols, such
as arrows, flow charts and contour maps.
The Container Corporation employed the talents of
Man Ray and Fernand Leger as well as Bayer in the late
1930’s. It was their concept that through good design, cor-
porations could influence good taste and profits. Bayer,
with his Bauhaus ideals, was a natural to work in this col-
laboration of art and industry. In their ads, text was limited
to fifteen words of copy in order to put the emphasis on
visual images. Lengthy texts were out; clean copy was in.
Advertising was seen as good public relations with consum-
ers and buyers at other corporations. Bayer used collage
and photomontage, elements from his fine art, in his early
advertisements. He became chairman of Container Corpo-
ration’s Department of Design in 1956. He was more than
14 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
just an art director, contributing in management decisions,
including the design of buildings and interiors.
The Great Ideas of Western Man was a Herbert Bayer
advertising campaign of the 1950’s and 60’s. These ads had
no sales message, again working on the concept that a good
corporate image was also good for business. The ad con-
cept was an out- growth of discussions at the Aspen Insti-
tute for Humanistic Studies.
The Institute worked to bring business executives and
managers together to discuss ideas in a relaxed setting and
a cultural environment. The Aspen Institute was as respon-
sible for putting Aspen on the world map as was skiing. It
was also a great concept for expanding the year past ski sea-
son, with many of its programs in the summer months.
It was through connections at the Aspen Institute that
Bayer met Robert O Anderson, founder of Atlantic Rich-
field Oil Company. In the early 1950’s they became friends;
Anderson bought Bayer’s house in town when Herbert
moved his studio onto Red Mountain, overlooking Aspen.
Along with the house, Anderson also began to buy artwork
by Bayer, providing the beginning of a relationship of pa-
tron and friend that would last until the end of Bayer’s life.
After Walter Paepcke’s death in 1960, Bayer began working
for ARCO as an art and design consultant, starting in 1966.
Bayer oversaw the design of corporate offices in New
York and Philadelphia, as well as Los Angeles when the cor-
porate headquarters moved there. He designed the artwork
for ARCO Plaza in Los Angeles: double ascension, two
linked staircases in a pool of water. He also advised ARCO
on the development of its large corporate art collection and
the performing arts programs it sponsored. He designed
carpets and tapestries for the corporate offices.
He designed a sculpture for the 1968 Olympics in Mex-
ico City. A similar sculpture resides at the Design Center in
Denver, Colorado. He also developed a seriesof sculptures
for ARCO that were designed to hide/beautify the Philadel-
phia refinery area. These were among a number of sculp-
tural projects that were never created and exist only in the
form of maquettes. Currently the Bayer family is working
to try to realize some of his models as larger works in Den-
ver and other cities.
Bayer moved from Aspen to the Santa Barbara area in
1976. He lived there for the last ten years of his life. A fine
collection of his work can be found in the Santa Barbara
Museum, while The Herbert Bayer Archive is at the Denver
Art Museum, with over 9000 artifacts in the collection.
During the last four decades of his life, Herbert Bayer
was well employed in design positions with the Container
Corporation and ARCO. In addition to his corporate re-
sponsibilities he developed a significant fine art portfolio
during these years. Artistically Bayer is probably better
known for his earlier photomontages from the Berlin years
(1928-1938). Having two significant patrons in Walter
Paepcke and Robert O. Anderson, there was little need for
Herbert Bayer the fine artist to go through the normal rou-
tine of gallery exhibitions and reviews necessary for artwork
to find its way into important private and public collections.
The town of Aspen is full of Herbert Bayer paintings that
moved directly from studio to private hands. To a certain
degree his reputation as a painter, printmaker and
sculptor never received the critical acclaim that ex-
hibitions and reviews would have allowed. He suf-
fered a bit from being too successful.
In his later years Bayer used his graphic skills
to create fine art prints, using lithography and silk-
screen, the same mediums used in his commercial
work. A skill learned in one area is used in another.
In these graphic images, as in his later paintings, he
returns to geometric design and abstraction in a se-
ries of works he called “anthologies”. In these works the
Bauhaus artist has returned to basics: color, geometry and
design. The sculpture he produced during these same years
still maintains a freshness today, thanks to his combination
of clean design and primary colors. His surrealist photo-
montages from the 1920’s hold as much shock value today
as they did then.
The success and legacy of Herbert Bayer are the combi-
nation of Bauhaus ideas and American optimism from the
post WWII period applied to a work ethic and career which
lasted until his death in 1985. It is the combination of clean
design and a fresh palette of primary colors that explain the
continuing appeal of his artwork. His work is optimistic
and easy to live with, the result of his lifelong adherence to
good design. More than any of his contemporaries, Her-
bert Bayer stayed true to his Bauhaus ideals through his
sixty-year career.
Hugo Anderson is the Director of Emil Nelson Gallery,
which represents the works of Herbert Bayer
from the Bayer Family Collection.
Feature 15
 PROFILE: GINA GENIS
Gina Genis uses her camera as her inner eye, panning in-
tensely to excavate hidden behaviors of the human condi-
tion. I first saw Genis’ images at the highly touted OsCene
exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA.
OsCene is in its third incarnation, a type of biannual of
the best local artists. Genis exhibited some of her Window
Peeping series by peering into windows of senior citizens at
night and finding out how they live.
Like a voyeur, Genis created another series, entitled
Things We Leave Behind. Genis asked to go into a deceased
man’s house and discovered his tendencies to hoard. At first
going into strangers’ home felt intrusive, but the discoveries
were worth the inconveniences. She was introduced to col-
lections, compulsions, and things people find important to
save, personal effects, letters, utensils, and objects of nostal-
gia. Everyone seeks his own details and everyone is obses-
sive in some way. Genis captured these in rare photos that
16 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
by Roberta Carasso
roberta.carasso@gmail.com
tell much about the individual soul and its desire to keep its
secrets.
The two series — Window Peeping and The Things
We Leave Behind — reveal Genis’ dedication to showing
how society is getting older and how the elderly are treated.
In this sense, her work is often a social commentary based
on factual research. Even in her 20s she understood that
people can become invisible. Our youth obsessed culture
can even make people feel and be discarded.
Needless to say, the photographs brought her much
attention. They were filled with life and loneliness, pain, de-
privation, and ways of coping in a society where the elderly
and sickly can easily be forgotten. Window Peeping won
Genis a dual solo exhibit at Cypress College, along with an-
other series entitled Kala (a Sanskrit word for time). Genis
was unexpectedly juried into the Minneapolis Photo Center
show with August at Inspiration Point, an image from the
Kala series. It has to do with our
responsibilities with controlling
nature; or, as she questions - is it
possible? As in all her photogra-
phy, Genis is a deep thinker, of-
fering the viewer something to
chew on while never presenting
“just a pretty picture.”
Genis’ latest endeavor is
entitled the Tunnel series. The
best of these were exhibited in
November 2010 at Notion Fine
Art in Laguna Beach. It began
when she was given special-
ized lenses by the lens company
who sponsored her work. Ge-
nis came upon a tunnel at Aliso
Creek Beach and walked into it,
camera in hand. This led unexpectedly to an emotional re- the bright light came out in distortions of colors, creating
sponse to a completely fresh situation. With the idea that a strange luminosity from the irregularity of light waves
some people are afraid of the dark and in a tunnel there is moving in a circumscribed area. The colors look eerie even
that proverbial light at its end, Genis began to shoot, ea- manipulated, although they are not, and always appear
ger to see what would transpire. Because of back lighting, wonderful. In them, Genis captures an enchanting scenario

Feature 17
Genis: (top) image from Things We Leave Behind
series, (bottom) from Window Peeping series.

where the scene seems real, but the

distortion of light and color catch
the viewer off guard.
Intrigued by the new effects of
light, Genis realized that the tunnel
offered her enormous lighting pos-
sibilities. Artists have always been
captivated by the contrast of light
and dark. The idea of chiaroscuro
was first used in the Renaissance
to distinguish the sharp contrast
of light from dark and to delineate
an object. Over centuries, artist
found that light and darkness af-
ford broader meaning that became
essential to the contemporary ar-
tistic vocabulary. In her current
series, Genis shows us the essence
of darkness as it contrast with the
essence of light and how colors be-
come altered because of the combi-
nation back lighting and the archi-
tectural nature of tunnel that forces
light into one area.
Although the Tunnel series
was a particular situation, for Ge-
nis, it is when she is actually shoot-
ing that the work sparks ideas.
Characteristically, her work is a re-
action to a highly emotional situa-
tion that is neither happy nor pret-
ty. As a professional, Genis spends
a lot of time working through pos-
sibilities. She has been a serious
photographer since she was 16, go-
ing on to complete a degree from
Parsons The New School for De-
sign in NYC. Photography was her
first visual form and love. At first,
photography meant designing for the theater. But being ic improvement, she came closer and closer to working as if
such an outdoors person, photography then meant hours she were painting with great clarity. It is important to add,
and hours in the dark room. Who would want to spend that having the intimate experience of working in a dark
beautiful days indoors when the world of nature beckoned room and watching the development of an image from its
outside? Genis could not bring herself to be inside. She inception to completion has added to her visual expertise.
shifted to being a painting major. Still drawn to photogra- Even when using a digital camera, Genis is always aware
phy, she became involved with mixed media of illuminated of the photographic process and the best ways to bring an
manuscripts because she could combine photography and image to fruition. Perhaps that is why I believes that Gina
painting. But a miracle occurred; the digital camera came Genis is a photographer to be watched.
on the scene. In 2004 she bought her first digital camera,
another in 2006, and another 2007. With each photograph- For more information, visit ginagenis.com

18 C|C|A Apr/May 2011

 FINDING THE NOBLE
IN IGNOBLE TIMES
by Roberta Carasso
roberta.carasso@gmail.com

Entering Darkness: Dorothy Wahlstrom, Nurse At Dachau, 1945, 2001, oil On Canvas, 130”x387” inches (six panel).

Jerome Witkin’s art begins with cityscapes, landscapes, individual por-
traits, but soars when he creates monumental depictions of cataclys-
mic and heroic events that span multiple canvasses. In each painting,
he takes us through a powerful visual journey narrated through mean-
ingful mark-making, colors, shapes, and textures. Even after viewing a
painting multiple times, there is still much to discover; Witkin’s art is
not a depiction nor is it meant to be a likeness. The work demands to
be contemplated, digested, experienced, and felt on a the level of the
soul. Witkin, now 71, has developed a masterful body of work.
The subject that I find most captivating is how Witkin gives us
an x-ray view into the nature of good and evil and, most importantly,
how he portrays the enormous efforts it takes for good to prevail. In an
interview, speaking off the cuff, he revealed what makes his art stand
out above others. He said that he searches “for the noble in ignoble
times.” Through his passionate art, Witkin conveys the limitless capac-
ity of the human spirit — its individual holiness even in the midst of
its tremors, tragedies, and bliss.
Ensconced as a professor of art at Syracuse University for 40
years, 2011 will initiate a traveling exhibition of 40 years of Witkin’s
art. The retrospective will begin at Syracuse University and be shown
across the US. His primary dealer, Jack Rutberg, of Jack Rutberg Fine
Arts in Los Angeles, orchestrates many of his exhibitions. But while
other artists clamor to be in the center of art, Witkin creates his unique
body of work far from mainstream influences.
The distance from New York City, or from any
major art center, allows him to work indepen-
dently with greater freedom, be master of his
convictions, and undeterred by trends and
fashions. Yet, whenever Witkin exhibits his
art — and he continually does — his paintings
dominate whatever gallery or museum they are
in. As a result, his enormous following includes
many people who travel great distances to see
whatever Witkin exhibits.
Witkin’s sensitivity to social issues of jus-
tice and injustice was formed early. In Brook-
lyn, he was born one of triplets. His sister died
at birth, but he grew up with his identical twin
brother Joel. Unheard of in 1939, Witkin’s fa-
ther was Jewish and his mother Catholic. The
schism made the intelligent child question
who he was, where he owed his allegiance, and
how he fit in. The dilemma raised conflicts and
questions, particularly because the marriage
Taken, 2002-03, oil on can-
vas, 108”x348” (4 panels).

Feature 21

broke up and his youth was spent during the Holocaust era
when news of the war and what was happening to Jews by
non-Jews was a never ending topic.
Drawn to art to express the unexplainable, at seven
Witkin went to a Catholic after-school art program run by
nuns. Although he continued for several years, the child
questioned their rigid approach to art-making and their of-
fering a conformist point-of-view for a boundless activity.
As a teen he attended the prestigious Music and Art High
School, composed largely of Jewish students and Jewish
teachers, where he was impressed with feeling comfortable
in this highly intellectual and freely inquiring atmosphere.
With a Catholic upbringing, he struggled to choose which
belief system suited him. He resolved the conflict into a
valuable salvo: “arrive at your own ideals and stick to them.”
Witkin grew into the quintessential promising young
art student, winning a scholarship to the then fairly new
Skowhegan School of Art in Maine. Never being out of
22 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
Greenpoint, the Brooklyn boy rubbed
elbows with such greats and so-
cial minded artists as Isabel Bishop,
George Grosz, Jack Levine, Rafael
Soyer, and Ben Shahn. For the first
time, he saw how professional, com-
mitted artists conduct their lives, pur-
sue their art, and were undaunted in
expressing their beliefs.
Excelling in art as an older teen,
Witkin became complacent until, as
an undergraduate, he met at Cooper
Union his instructor, the painter Vic-
tor Candel. Witkin, now a bit smug
and lacking humility, was ignored by
his instructor, who never invited him
for a crit as he did other students.
Realizing that something was wrong,
Witkin asked Candel for a crit. Can-
del, a very small man with a thick ac-
cent left to go to the library, return-
ing with a huge art history book. He
opened it to Michelangelo’s Pieta. The
two stared in silence, until Candel
said: “Vitkin, do you think she is bab-
ysitting?” This perceptive statement
caused an immediate paradigm shift,
as Witkin, realizing the shallowness
of what he had been creating, under-
stood the message. Never again did
he make art that was meaningless.
Today Witkin spends from two
to three years to complete a paint-
ing. They are not only large in size,
but immense in concept, context, and
spirit. He works on a series and ro-
tates the work, spending a great deal
of time in contemplation and down
and dirty paint work. A characteristic of Witkin’s brush
is how the marks change depending on what he paints. In
scenes of goodness and perfection, his strokes sing, lovingly
applied, glistening with grandeur. But when he deals with
unsettling subjects of human aberrations, the brush begins
to growl, strokes become distorted, and colors are duller.
Witkin’s paintings are never uniform in expression. Seen in
a larger context of paint applications -- brushstrokes, col-
ors, textures, and composition -- they each respond to the
narrative as powerful voices that insist on being heard.
Witkin has taken on difficult, even impossible sub-
jects of a lone individual or a group of individuals who dis-
play superhuman courage to right a wrong: the Holocaust,
Black History, Martin Luther King, the Trial of Adolph
Eichmann, Hiroshima, 9/11, and obscure saints and heroes,
as well as homage to artists he admires — Käthe Kollwitz
and Rembrandt Van Rijn. The apex of Witkin’s talents is
when his heroic protagonist intuits the need to fearlessly Jerome Witkin: (opposite page top) Rocco’s Garage: The Light Be-
fore Rain, 2001, oil on canvas, 36”x56”; (opposite page bottom) The
stands up for principles — even against all odds — and German Girl, 1997, oil on canvas, 80”x124” overall; (directly below)
Vincent Van Gogh and Death, 1987, mixed media drawing, 84”x48”;
in the end, triumphs. With honest yet wry humor, Wit- (bottom of this page) The Insult And Young Martin, 2004-2007, oil on
canvas, 25’ 6” (five panels). Images courtesy of Jack Rutberg Fine Arts.
kin states: “I don’t know how to make polite paintings.”
In 2001, Witkin created six irregularly shaped
panels on the theme of the Holocaust. They were shown
at the 2006 Broken Beauty exhibition at the Laguna Art
Museum in Laguna Beach, CA. The exhibition, a theme
rarely examined, looked at the dark side of suffering.
But there was a lighter side too, as artists selected for
the exhibition showed that the human spirit always
moves towards resolution, even when beauty is broken.
Like the Hebrew language, Witkin’s paintings, entitled
Entering Darkness, is read from right to left. The nar-
rative is based on a diary of a little known Christian
nurse from Minnesota, Dorothy Wahlstrom, who, in
1945, was among the first liberators to enter Dachau,
the infamous concentration camp. Witkin places the
nurse in every panel, except the third. Dressed in her
angelic white uniform, Wahlstrom moves through the
panels. Flashlight in hand, her healthy purity is a sharp
contrast to the filth surrounding her and the hell that
was the camp. For Witkin, creating the series was his
response to atrocities, portraying horrors at their most
glaring. His goal was to shed light on truth. Witkin’s
contribution to the Broken Beauty exhibition is his
conviction that evil can never be eradicated unless it
is recognized and exposed. In the last panel, the evil
now exposed changes Wahlstrom. She sits meditatively
alone on a cot wearing her military jacket, as the freed
survivors leave healthy and renewed.
In his work, Witkin creates for those among
us who realize that art can be a powerful weapon.
Wrenching subjects in the hands of a lesser artist would
be impossible to reduce to a canvas or a series of can-
vasses. But here is where Witkin is master. Through his
forthright paintings, he tackles, head on, the nature of
ignobility, plowing deeply through the muck that is hell
until he arrives at portraying, in epic proportions, the
noble soul of a rare few. For this alone, Jerome Witkin’s
art will stand the test of time, become classic, and will
be appreciated far into the future.

Feature 23

Exhibiton Review: Street ‘N Low
The Street ‘N Low show at the Rob-
ert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica,
CA, houses a large and eclectic assort-
ment of street and lowbrow art, show-
ing work by Keith Haring and Rob-
ert Crumb alongside that of Shepard
Fairey and Barry McGee. Borrowing
its name from the ubiquitous packets
of sugar substitute, the show anticipates
the upcoming MOCA exhibition Art in
the Streets while referencing the brillo
box-inspired logo of the now defunct
Deitch Projects. The former constitutes
the first major survey of street art in
an American museum, while the latter
represents a gallery known for launch-
ing the careers of street artists such as
Barry McGee, Swoon, and Os Gemeos.
The Street ‘N Low logo thus pays double
homage to Jeffrey Deitch, former owner
of the Deitch Projects, current director
of MOCA, and a man who Berman
considers a colleague in the exhibition
of street art.
Street ’N Low’s carefully wrought
branding urges the viewer to take no-
tice of work that, in Berman’s estima-
tion, is too often discounted for its
display of technical skill. More often
polished than painterly, pieces by art-
ists like Greg Gibbs and Robert Wil-
liams have the easy beauty of the comic,
EXHIBITIONS
by Jessie Kim
the billboard, and the magazine. Like
the pop artists of the 1950s, adherents
of street and lowbrow continually sam-
ple from consumer culture. Williams’
paintings draw their action and color
from Marvel comics, while Gibbs casts
himself as pop culture icon Franken-
stein in Frankie Takes LACMA. From
the consumer packaging-inspired logo
to John Colao’s Vote Obama, painted in
the style of Warhol’s 1972 Vote McGov-
ern, the show repeatedly makes refer-
ence to its hallowed pop art forebears.
These allusions to high art carry
over into the allocation of gallery space.
Paintings by Ron English hang side to
side and top to bottom with prints by
Robbie Conal and illustrations by Mark Views of the Street ‘N Low at Robert Berman Gallery
Ryden. This salon style method of
hanging, taking its name from the Roy- “souvenir of an idea,” and like a ped-
al Academy salons of 17th to 19th cen- dler of souvenirs, he reminds us that
tury Europe, traditionally segregates moments in time are fleeting. His show
paintings into hierarchies of size and presents a rough chronology of street
importance. Salon style in the Rob- and lowbrow art, attempting to pre-
ert Berman Gallery, however, carries serve and highlight the roots of an ever-
populist connotations. It echoes the growing movement. The show, like the
ordered chaos of the magazine spread, sugar substitute from which it takes its
the storefront window, the website por- name, seems sweet and light, delighting
tal. It is the visual language of the mod- the tongue but eluding the waist. Rob-
ern consumer masked in the trappings ert Berman’s deliberate timing, brand-
of the Academy salon. ing, and hanging, however, lend heft to
Berman refers to art as the mere the motley of work.
Exhibitions 25
 EXHIBITIONS

Feature Exhibition: David Jang

als are as natural as nature itself can be.
For Jang there is no distinction between
artifice and nature as the artist’s work
plays out like a landscape of objects, as
diverse and alive as an urban environ-
ment or natural setting.
Born in South Korea, and based in
Los Angeles, David Jang has long wres-
tled with the notion of conformity and
the defiance thereof. This struggle is ev-
ident in his work, in each of his obses-
sively replicated creative acts—walls of
looped of wire and skyline-like stacks
of plastic cups—that suggest a social
order while simultaneously subverting
the individual’s intended purpose. Such
is the nature of Jang’s relationship with
his media: every object can be defined
by both what it is and the potential for
what it can become.

For artist David Jang, the creative act

is rather an act of discovery. In his up-
coming solo exhibition at Downtown
Art Center Gallery on June 9, Jang’s
discoveries examine the complex rela-
tionships between force and balance,
perception and consciousness.
Jang’s work inevitably begins with
the medium. Working from the conceit
that within every material exists also
its life’s instructions, Jang constructs,
modifies, manufactures, and manipu-
lates material into a whole new set of
objects with a whole new set of rules.
Potato chip bags are inverted and con-
structed into globs to take on a feel
more akin to cast pewter than snack
food packaging; unrolled paper towels
are stood on-end and made rigid with
resin; circline fluorescent lamps and
wires are strung up into exquisite vines;
and Styrofoam cups are motorized into
a symphony of screeching. ten articulated pieces that express their David Jang
By taking an extremely experi- own unique qualities living and being. Donwtown Art
mental approach to mundane things— It is within his relationship with materi- Center Gallery
many of which can even be considered als that one begins to understand Jang’s
Los Angeles
consumer waste—Jang transforms the concept of “urban formalism”—essen-
[Jun 9 - July 6]
everyday object into self-motivated, of- tially the artist’s idea that urban materi-

Exhibitions 27
 EXHIBITIONS
Michael Alexis New York-based painter
and Jennifer Faist Michel Alexis’ current body
Ruth Bachofner Santa Monica of work is an extension of a
[April 23 - June 4] series he began some twenty
years ago, in which he in-
corporated the notations
and prose of Gertrude Stein.
While the words themselves
have left Alexis’ canvases,
remnants of the motion and
form of the written word are
suggested through sweeping,
calligraphic markings. In the
new work, as with the old,
words and letters are drained
of meaning, freed of origin
and occupy a strictly formal
space. Alexis adapts the physical act of
writing, translating it as drawing, incising
(above left) Michel Alexis, Epigram 7, 2010, Oil and gesturing to create his own distinct,
on canvas, 54" x 41" (above right) Jennifer Faist
Mingle, 2010, Resin, oil, alkyd, acrylic on wood, complex visual vocabulary. Alexis’ gestures
46" x 14" x 1.5".
are set off by jostling rectangles made of
paper, burlap and other textured material,
littlewhitehead which fold, wrinkle and crease as they abut
Marine Venice
[May 7 - June 18] Bad News, the debut US solo show for UK
based collective littlewhitehead. Where
littlewhitehead often unashamedly appro-
priate media images and represent them as
hyperreal sculptures, this is not as political-
ly preaching as it may appear. Littlewhite-
head are children of the 80’s: brought up on
a diet of video nasties, computer games and
the post-industrial landscape of socialist
Glasgow. Their work is the product of a very
idiosyncratic and private dialogue, where
littlewhitehead, We're all going to lose, 2011,
resin, wire, cloth, silicon rubber, polyurethane with an encyclopedic range of references,
foam, hat, pajamas, socks,sandals, 47x35.5x 12”.
they discuss shared ideas until they have in-
spiration for a work. As a result, all of their
work is steeped in their very own brand
Judith Supine
New Image West Hollywood
[April 13 - May 13] The exhibition features the artist's newest
and most ambitious work to date, show-
casing more than twenty canvases and
large-scale woodcut sculptures up to four-
teen feet high. Supine has transformed the
entire gallery into a personal installation
space, covering every inch of floor, wall
and ceiling with silk-screened wallpaper,
his signature fluorescent colors and dream-
like narratives. LADYBOY references the
"genderqueer". Supine describes the title's
Judith Supine, outdoor art installation. significance as "themarriage of opposites in
28 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
one another, or shift to reveal fissures of
substrate color. Jennifer Faist engages in a
rigorous material process where color sets
an emotional timbre and pattern anchors
the conceptual and compositional core
of the work. Faist begins her process on
stacked plywood boards which are sanded,
gessoed and then painted on with thick
layers of paint. The patterns created in the
first layer are then covered with thin appli-
cations of additional alkyd, oil and colored
glazes which are sanded down to partially
reveal portions of the subsequent layers. A
clear epoxy resin serves as the final layer.
Faist’s perfectly smooth, reflective surfaces
draw viewers into their vibrant, immeasur-
able depths. The meticulously crafted work
recalls the Finish Fetish work of the 60’s,
but Faist curbs pure materiality and infuses
her work with personal resonance. Within
layers of paint, Faist appropriates patterns
from her own clothing which she associates
with specific memories, creating relics of
her past that resonates with viewers.
of dark humor. It is through such humor,
that they manage to negate any particular
ideological position and instead foster re-
flection on many ontological and ideologi-
cal absurdities. Bad News brings together
a selection of new work by littlewhitehead.
The Glasgow-based duo have a knack for
summoning up our collective fears in their
cryptic, humorous style. Indeed, a glut of
bad news preceded the making of the work
and in turn formed the foundations for the
show. Although the news was very person-
al, it allowed them to notice the misfortune
of others more readily and, fueled by their
own misery, beart it as their own.
one person - comparable to the technique
of collage, combining seemingly disparate
images to reveal something that wasn't pre-
viously apparent". Brooklyn-based Supine
uses his hyperactive imagination to merge
images of people, pornography and design
elements. He describes his materials as “free
or at least really cheap”: X-Acto knife, glue
sticks, low-cost paint, thrown-out books,
and magazines. Figures with dispropor-
tionate features are created, revealing gritty
and sophisticated style, expertly rendered.

Overs & Unders: Paintings by Bob Neuwirth,
1964 – 2009, a restrospective of the artist’s
work curated by Kristine McKenna, in-
cludes sixteen canvases produced over the
course of his forty-five year career. Difficult
to categorize, Bob Neuwirth has moved from
one medium to another, but has always re-
turned to his original disciplines of draw-
ing and painting. As he says, “all art is vi-
sual for me, whether I’m painting or trying
to write a good song.” Although Neuwirth’s
work has been making its way into pri-
vate collections for decades, he’s remained
largely indifferent to exhibiting throughout
his career; Overs & Unders offers the first
comprehensive overview of his stylistic de-
velopment. Neuwirth came of age during
the glory days of New York action painting,
and abstraction has always been central to
his art-making practice. Overs & Unders
includes a selection of work from the early
‘60s, when he was producing quirky hy-
brids of Cubism and Surrealism. The ‘70s
found him exploring various experimental
materials, and he went on to produce a se-
ries of wall works that straddled the zone
between painting and sculpture, and a cy-
cle of haunted landscapes that are poised
between abstraction and figuration. Neu-
wirth’s work has grown increasingly lyrical
and fluid over the course of his career, and
Brazilian artist’s Dias Sardenberg in her
first United States solo exhibition. Holi-
days in an American Desert, will feature
monumental, multi-media paintings. Her
latest works, “The Mocambo Suite”. are rich
and intimate portraits re-appropriated en-
tirely from her signature medium, vintage
kimono silks. Mining such diverse sources
as art brut, Matissean figuration, popular
culture and animist iconography, Sarden-
berg’s work reveals an anachronistic world
of natural order and chaos, teeming with
sensuality, mysticism and sophistication.
Spanning 9 by 16 feet, the charged, fantas-
tical tableau of Holidays in an American
Desert reveals primal female forms danc-
ing amongst the saguaros, a contempo-
rary beauty lying on the sand and jewel-
encrusted desert floor embracing the tail of
an orange and black checkerboard panther
and a blue man following the traces of an
EXHIBITIONS
in recent years he has been producing exu- Bob Neuwirth
berant, expansive pictures filled with space, Track 16 Santa Monica
light, and blazing color. Born in Ohio, Neu- [May 14 - June 11]
wirth began painting as a teenager. While a
student at Ohio University, he met Jim Dine
who was working as a graduate assistant to
one of his professors. Dine encouraged him
to go to the School of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston. After two years at school,
Neuwirth made his way to Paris where he
spent time wandering the Louvre and the
Orangerie absorbing classical and Impres-
sionist painting influences. He returned to
Boston and became part of the Cambridge
Folk scene that launched the careers of Joan
Baez and Geoff Muldaur among others. As
a result of playing music in various folk
venues Neuwirth entered the fluid world of
transcontinental folk-slingers and traveled
the axis between Cambridge/New York,
and Berkeley/San Francisco, with detours
in between. In 1964 while living in Berke-
ley, Neuwirth got a call from his friend Bob
Dylan asking him to join a tour that re-
sulted in the now classic D.A. Pennebaker
film Don't Look Back. Throughout his life,
Neuwirth made music while working on
tours for musicians like John Cale and Kris
Kristofferson. Neuwirth maintains studios
in Manhattan and Santa Monica, and splits
his time between the two cities.
Bob Neuwith: (top) with his work, ca. 1968, photo
by John Byrne Cooke. (bot) Untitled, acrylic on
canvas, 40”x34"
other-worldly spirit… all while two Ameri-
can tourists look on from the safety of their Dias Sardenberg
1959 DeSoto Adventurer convertible. The Blythe Projects Culver City
physical toughness of the collage and com- [through May 14]
positional planes reflects undercurrents of
violence and psycho-sexual tension in con-
temporary society. “The Mocambo Suite”
is loosely based on the notorious 1940s
West Hollywood nightclub, frequented by
Marlene Dietrich, Rock Hudson, James
Cagney and Grace Kelly. Of the work, Sha-
mim M. Momin--founder of the non-profit
arts organization, LAND (the Los Angeles
Nomadic Division) and Adjunct Cura-
tor for the Whitney Museum of American
Art—says, “The artist’s stated desire to use
the typically hidden layers of the kimono…
adds a conceptual layer to the images: a re-
veal, as it were, of the faces or identities hid-
den beneath the ‘outer layer of one’s public
persona.” Dias Sardenberg, The Mocambo Suite (Dia-
mond Girl), 2011, vintage kimono silks, 13”x9”.
Exhibitions 29
 EXHIBITIONS
Pablo Sigg
ltd Los Angeles
[through Apr 30]
Pablo Sigg: (top) 3600 Prospect St, 2009,
cardboard model, 34”x28”x25”; (bottom) instal-
lation view with 134 Exhibits, 2009-2010, film
installation (MiniDV, NTSC, color, audio Dolby
digital), 42 min 8 sec, Edition of 5, 2 AP. Both
images courtesy of ltd Los Angeles.
Ned Vena
Michael Benevento Los Angeles
[through May 7]
Ned Vena, installation view.
Dennis Loesch
Galerie Anais Santa Monica
[April 16 - May 12]
Dennis Loesch, Playboy (Corset), 2009,
paper, pigment ink, 15”x20.5”.
30 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
Within the context of the Swedenborg
Room’s research of cinematographic space
as utopian space, Pablo Sigg’s The Sweden-
borg Room features four films, a cardboard
model, a text and a neon light sculpture.
The four films are: 134 Exhibits (a 43 min-
ute film of Belgian painter Luc Tuymans
under hypnosis announcing a list of his
own exhibitions), What an excellent day for
an exorcism (a 3 minute video of the pos-
sessed child’s room in the film, The Exorcist
(1973), void of all human presence, com-
posing a still life), Room (a 10 minute cut
of a 3 month hypnosis film project shot in
Sweden circa 2009) and Anemic Cinema
(an animated film of the exorcism session
This exhibition will feature a new body of
work by Ned Vena, including seven white
paintings, a group of rubber, “target” paint-
ings, a vinyl wall relief, and a 16mm film.
Vena’s White Paintings have their roots in
motifs originating from Frank Stella’s icon-
ic ‘Black Painting’, Die Fahne Hoch (1958).
Breaking down, reassembling, rearticulat-
ing and inverting the ratios and relation-
ships of particular histories of minimal-
ism, Vena’s White Paintings are composed
of four quadrants of repeating right angles
originating at the center of the canvas at
the intersection of two perpendicular line,
a conceptual and formal thread through-
out the exhibition. Using flat white Rusto-
leum enamel, Vena’s paintings incorporate
a layer of vinyl, which is painted over before
ultimately being removed, leaving behind
ridges of white paint in a four-quadrant
formation. For this exhibition Vena cre-
ated six long, thin paintings and one large
vertical work, all on canvas, gesturing to-
wards a reflexive way of thinking about
Dennis Loesch's first solo US gallery exhi-
bition, Auto Versicherung, features works
on paper and a sculpture. Loesch is inter-
ested in the edges, the margins and the
periphery of mass media imagery, and by
intervening within the image, “rewriting”
it, the combination of source material and
that of the artist’s intervention expands
and enlarges the possibilities of the origi-
nal image. Loesch emphasizes copy, revis-
in The Exorcist). The exhibition also in-
cludes The Swedenborg Room (a series of 5
prints with a text about the notion of “Swe-
denborg Room”), 3600 Prospect St. (a card-
board model of the house featured in The
Exorcist) and Inf. III 9 (a textual quote in
neon of the last line of the inscription on
the Gates of Hell in Dante’s Inferno –“Aban-
don all hope ye who enter”– a mental door,
an invisible limit in the form of a footnote).
This is the artist’s first exhibition in the
United States. Sigg’s most recent solo exhi-
bition was at the Museo de Arte Raúl An-
guiano, Guadalajara, Mexico in 2009. His
work has also been featured throughout the
world. He lives and works in Mexico City.
certain histories of painting and represen-
tation. Extending from Vena’s interest in
linen as a historical component of painting,
Vena’s three “Target” paintings are created
through a series of concentric vinyl circles
– ‘crosshairs’ – stenciled onto linen with a
sprayed rubber. Rather than maintaining
perfect symmetry, Vena’s material process
skews the center of his images, examining
the mis-registration of patterns and distor-
tion of images. His works pun the literal,
gesturing towards the cannon as something
to both aspire to and aim to destroy. Vena’s
vinyl patterns also emerge in his 16mm
film. While Vena’s works in other media of-
ten meditate on the unintentional and un-
controlled marks occurring when one set of
materials is introduced and removed from
another set of materials during production,
Vena’s film not only visualizes the particu-
lar vinyl patterns the artist has painstak-
ingly composed onto the filmstrip, but also
reveals the dust, scratches and fingerprints
amassed during production.
ing, reversing existing images, the resulting
images appearing like a new window over
the original. The SCANs and Transfers that
explore these ideas are complemented by a
sculpture, a self portrait of sorts, of the art-
ist’s distinctive YSL glasses, bent, distorted
and misshapen, becoming a metaphor for
a distinctive way of seeing. [An exhibition
of the artist’s sculptures run concurrently at
Art Center Los Angeles.

This exhibition of work by David Benja-
min Sherry, titled Form Forming Forma-
tion, studies concepts of geometry, science,
color, materiality, and the course of change.
It includes both traditional color prints and
photographic collage work. Through the
artist's analog approach to producing im-
ages, he examines aspects of arrangement
and the visual results of alchemical and
light analysis. With his photographically
based constructions (Solar System In Blood
System, 2011), Sherry explores specified
geometric formations, based on the math-
ematical design of our planet and solar sys-
tem. Also referencing crop circle phenom-
enon, these rectilinear configurations aim
to address the varied changes Earth under-
goes. The work also serves to chronicle this
moment in history, and to raise awareness
of the natural world around us, through a
visual combination of minimal form and
complex pattern. Sherry's series of highly
saturated chromogenic prints, depicting
expressive rock-like structures, continue
the dialogue between object and interpreta-
tion. Sculptures painstakingly created over
time, then later photographed as in Royal
The exhibition features the artist's newest
body of paintings and metal sculptures.
As a child, Christophe Leroux was drawn
to trains, ships, planes and factories. This
fascination with visually complicated ma-
chines is evident in the graceful, yet pow-
erful paintings and metal sculptures of
this French artist. Leroux translates urban
intensity into a bold statement of original-
ity and beauty. The newest series, entitled
Bomb Shell, was inspired by Leroux's fasci-
nation with the "bombshell beauties" pilots
painted on their planes during the 1940's.
EXHIBITIONS
Ruin Ultramarine Umbilical Fiend Fallen David Benjamin Sherry
Cobalt Core, 2011, provoke an explanation OHWOW Los Angeles
of how and why these seemingly figurative [Apr 30 - May 27]
forms evolved into abstracted artifacts, and
are now frozen in a moment. The anthropo-
morphic imagery deals with ideas of evo-
lution and shift - the systematic process of
alteration and the aesthetic conclusion of
transformation. These contrasting bodies
of work create a tension between each oth-
er, while they simultaneously begin to draw
parallels between Earth's properties and
human existence. Sherry not only uses pho-
tography as a documentation of fact, but
also as an expression of an unknown future.
Each monochromatic image is then both an
examination and a certainty, questioning
the genesis of how thoughts become real-
ity and illustrating the result of that action
into form. David Benjamin Sherry is a New
York-based artist, with a graduate degree
from Yale University. His work is shown
nationally and abroad, including recent
exhibitions at Aspen Art Museum, Aspen,
CO; Garage Center for Contemporary Art,
Moscow, Russia; and PS1/MOMA Contem-
porary Art Center, Long Island City, NY.
David Benjamin Sherry: (top) Fuchsia Future
Bismuth Boiled Puce Poised California Coral
Sand Stone, 2011 (bot) Royal Ruin Ultrama-
He modernized this Pin Up/Bomb Shell rine Fiend Fallen Cobalt Core, 2011.
girl - integrating his graffiti-style stencils
with his color field grounds and drip pat-
terns in oil on canvas and oil on Arches pa- Christophe Leroux
per. In addition to the Bomb Shell series, George Billis Culver City
the exhibition features Leroux's aluminum [through May 14]
wall sculptures which he calls "Froissee" or
Christophe Lerouz, BS 27 YK 43, 2011,
"wrinkled" in French, his native tongue. oil on paper, 30”x22". Gika, zinc engraving
on arches paper, 2004, 13”x19”, #8/15.
Leroux changes the aluminum color ever
so slightly and bends the sheetsinto three
dimensional forms that come off the wall -
creating shadows and depth that are both
sophisticated and seemingly effortless.
Exhibitions 31
HERBERT BAYER

“SELF-PORTRAIT” 1932
FROM THE BAYER FAMILY COLLECTION

EMIL NELSON GALLERY

2864 COLORADO AVE
SANTA MONICA, CA 90404
310-266-9904

CIRCUS DADA: SIDESHOW
Circus Dada: Sideshow is an eight foot
by sixteen foot oil triptych on canvas
painted by L.A. artist Hugo Anderson.
The painting was begun in October
2009 and completed in February 2011.
Also included in the exhibition are the
original full scale cartoon (drawing)
for the painting and twenty five related
studies and other circus drawings.
The circus painting is part of a se-
ries of three paintings, all triptychs of
the same size; it is the second in the
series. The first was about the making
of a movie on Napoleon, exhibited at
the Hangar in 2008. The third is about
a ballet and is currently in progress,
scheduled for fall 2011. The setting for
all three paintings is the 1920’s. They
are paintings about the arts and enter-
tainment in which the artist has used
contemporary performers and enter-
tainment professionals as his models:
actors, musicians, writers, directors,
producers, cameramen etc.
His models are the friends he has
made since moving to L.A. in 2006.
The three paintings are actually the out-
growth of a series of 36 L.A. portraits
he painted in the first year he was here,
which were also exhibited at the Han-
gar Gallery in 2007. That painting was
nine and a half feet high by forty four
feet wide, consisting of three rows of 12
portraits each, 36 in all. The subjects
were all people he met in the first year
living here: again they were predomi-
nantly people in the arts, living on the
Westside.
EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS
Hugo Andersen
Anderson has a studio in Santa
Monica, where he also lives. He has
been working as a practicing artist for
almost 40 years. The current paintings
are a return to figuration after 20 years
of landscape painting which evolved
to almost abstraction. He began with
figurative art and even when painting
minimalist paintings, continued his
interest in the figure through life draw-
ing. He plans to release a catalog of re-
cent drawings along with an exhibition
of nudes this summer.
The current exhibition is housed at
Hangar Gallery at Santa Monica
Airport. It runs through May 21.
Artists 35
EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS

Lisa C. Soto

IN HER OWN WORDS

My experiences, memories and diverse For instance, the forms of underwater My work has evolved from faces
cultural background directly contrib- coral plants look like grooves in dry riv- to maps, though the theme has always
ute to my work. My grandparents came erbeds as well as the patterns of Man- been about landscape, even the faces
from Jamaica and Puerto Rico, immi- delbrot sets in physics. Within these look like landscapes. My early work was
grating to Harlem in New York City in elements and imagery, lies a social po- very intimate; I painted mask-like faces
the early 20’s. I was born in Los Ange- litical undercurrent, reflecting aspects eventually evolving into paintings of
les but grew up in Spain and New York of the world’s interactions. figurative faces emerging from a land-
City, in a household of multiple cul-
tures, languages, and arts. Although I
was always creative as a child, I hadn’t
discovered that I was an artist until I
was taking graduate courses towards
my masters in psychology. At that time,
I lived with my boyfriend who was a
painter, but had given it up for cinema-
tography. I came home one day to find
the coffee table covered in his acrylic
paints, boards, and brushes and a note
that read, “Start”. I did. I left school
without completing my masters, and I
moved to Paris for a little while, where I
indulged in some of the greatest muse-
ums in the world. As I continued to ex-
plore the process of painting, I realized
that this was going to be my lifetime
work. I had moved to Amsterdam by
then and enrolled in the Amsterdams
Instituut voor Schilderkunst directed
by Gert Meijerink. After attending the
school I returned to the States and be-
gan exhibiting and selling my works.
I am drawn to new identities, world
cultures and diminishing borders. I am
interested in the notion of boundaries,
both self-imposed and man-made ter-
ritories, shifting or opening up. I am
fascinated by the idea that technology
can allow us to cross even normally
restricted boundaries. People are able
to communicate, travel and exchange
views more than ever before. Aestheti-
cally, my work focuses on colors, tex-
tures, and contours through reinvented
maps, topography, and landscapes. I
am also attracted to details of land-
scape, to shapes repeating in nature.

36 C|C|A Apr/May 2011


scape of color and texture. I wanted to
explore this concept of geography fur-
ther and from a different point of view.
I started to think more literally about
different kinds of “scapes” (landscape,
seascape, mindscape). My paintings
began to include diverse imagery ap-
propriated from traditional symbols,
patterns, foliage, insects, sea life, bod-
ies of water, tectonic plates and the re-
invention of maps to create imaginary
and fragmented landscapes.
In the past few years, I have been
creating a series of 3D drawings (as I
refer to my sculptures) including the
world, the U.S. and Europe, as well as
a 9-foot fishing net made out of imagi-
nary islands. For the U.S. piece, for
instance, I cut out the shape of every
state and territory in Mylar. Then drew
symbols derived from different tribes
of Northern America and colored the
states the color of earth. These mostly
rectangular pieces were sewn together
in a circle. The configuration symboliz-
es the circle of life as the different tribes
believed. “U.S. & territories”, speaks of
how this country has not acknowledge
the treatment of the original peoples of
this land and this ill treatment still con-
tinues to this day.
The latest piece I am beginning is
on the continent of Africa in silver and
gold Mylar. It will be the first time I am
using this kind of Mylar. I am curious
as to the different ways the material will
lend itself and the different meanings
that will be derived out of this work.
On one hand, I am bringing up the
fact that Africa has been stripped of its
wealth for hundreds of years. On the
other hand, I am referring to the inner
wealth of the African peoples. That it is
time for African nations to shine.
Unlike design, which is about solv-
ing problems or architecture, which has
the function of creating a space for peo-
ple to inhabit, art traditionally is not
EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS
Lisa C. Soto
about function but about raising ques-
tions. I am asking the viewer what if the
boundaries they live within change or
diminish altogether? What would that
mean to them or provoke out of them?
In my 3D drawings, I am taking a place
in the world and randomly rearranging
its geography, asking what if this coun-
try was now next to that one? What
would their relationship be like? Would
they learn something from each other
or would they be at war? I turn these
places sideways or upside down be-
cause just like anything, when you turn
something upside down you to see it
completely differently and new mean-
ings can be derived.
Lisa Soto will be participating in the
2012 Biennial of the Perm Museum of
Contemporary Art in Russia. For more
information, visit lisacsoto.com.
Artists 37
EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS
Ricky Allman
Landscapes That Reflect Colliding Forces
Ricky Allman's paintings are a hybrid of mountainous land-
scapes and architectural structures that juxtapose nature
with the environment constructed by man. The artist ma-
nipulates light and space to create new experimental worlds
that are both foreign and familiar to the viewer. Allman's
paintings capture a sense of movement and space through
the heavy use of varying perspective, layering, and complex
connections. Tight, fine lines are balanced with loose, paint-
erly strokes. Bold colors are contrasted with subtle, grounded
tones. Geometric shapes commingle with organic masses.
Allman's fascination is with contrasting forces that work
with and against each other, that intersect and collide, shap-
ing natural and man-made structures alike to create a capti-
vating, challenging landscape for the viewer to experience.
Allman's works often explore his struggle to reconcile
the religious belief system he was raised with and his current
38 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
(clockwise from bottom left) fluid redux, acrylic on panel, 36”x48”; safe keeping,
acrylic on canvas, 36”x48"; deconcretize, acrylic on canvas, 48”x36”. All images 2010.
world-view. His paintings are tinged with both an existential
concern and a cautious optimism for the future. Although he
grew up in a tradition concerned about apocalyptic events,
he has become more interested in humanity's disregard for
the future and the hope that such disregard can be overcome.
Allman's inspiration for his work comes from a myriad
of sources: everyday experiences and observations, environ-
mental surroundings, current events, sci-fi movie stills, and
reflections about the past and present. This series of works
represents a new level of experimentation, maturity, tech-
nique and sophistication for the artist.
Ricky Allman is an American painter born and raised
in Provo, Utah. He is currently an assistant professor at the
University of Missouri-Kansas City. He received a BFA from
the Massachusetts College of Art, and an MFA from the
Rhode Island School of Design in 2007.
For more information, visit rickyallman.com.

IN HER OWN WORDS
Discovering Freedom in Artistic Expression
Myungwon Kim, Untitled 02, 2010, oil paint and 4 different black pigments mixed with acrylic paint on Mylar, 9.8’ x 16’.
I am interested in the physical act of making marks
and the physicality of the materials that I use in my
art work. My body becomes a tool, and I begin to ex-
plore the medium. The series of black paintings are an
investigation of color and medium as well as a docu-
mentation of my intimate relationship with them.
I believe my intuition to study my medium could
be credited to my father. With a doctorate in western
philosophy and as a professor at university in Korea,
my father is also a published poet and calligrapher.
Growing up in Korea, I have spent a lot of time
watching my father perfect his calligraphy. He prac-
ticed his brush strokes over and over until he mas-
tered them. Each stroke and the marks symbolized
precision and discipline and a clear meaning. It was
fascinating to watch the controlled movements of his
body and the direct results of the ink on the tip of his
brush leaving a purposeful mark on the paper. He ful-
ly understood his materials; the brush, the sumi ink
and the rice paper and the relationship between them.
EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS
Myungwon Kim
I decided I wanted to be an artist and attended
Maryland Institute College of Art. In my drawing
class, the professor challenged us to create a drawing
with unusual tools. I was always drawn to Janine An-
tonil’s photograph of her using her hair. I was inspired
and decided to use my hair. With a big piece of paper
on the floor and a bucket full of sumi ink, I dipped my
hair and began to draw. It was one of the most liberat-
ing experiences of my life. I gave up a certain amount
of control because I could not see what kinds of marks
I was making and instead I relied entirely on my body
and my movements. After I finished, I looked at my
work, it was almost calligraphic, I knew where I start-
ed and where I finished and was left with an imprint of
my experience.
I was also interested in lithography, a printmak-
ing technique, during this time. I was drawn to li-
thography for its labor-intensive and process-oriented
medium and I wanted learn more about it. I applied
and was accepted to Tamarind Institute, a print shop
Artists 39
EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS
Myungwon Kim
Myungwom Kim, Untitled 01, 2010, oil paint and 4 different black pigments mixed with acrylic paint on Mylar, 9.8’ x 12’.
and school to train future Lithography printmakers
and masters.
After graduating from the most intensive print-
making program, I then realized that I knew how to
deal with the process of lithography, that I had a feel-
ing for it, and that I could use the technique in a way
that it hadn’t been used before. So I had a certain free-
dom to move right into it and incorporate the process
of lithography into my drawings. I started using my-
lar (thin transparent film) instead of paper and Xerox
toner instead of sumi ink, which is commonly used in
the process of printmaking. I started to invest a lot of
time not only drawing with my hair and body but also
slowly started to use different domestic tools around
me to create different sizes and style of marks. I be-
came more physical with my work.
There was still something to work-out in my
black and white drawings. The drawing created a type
of discourse that I did not want in terms involving the
viewer’s experience. I did not want the viewer to look
at the work and automatically assume the piece purely
as abstract expressionist and walk away. I slowly real-
ized that the white brought out drama, emotion, visual
40 C|C|A Apr/May 2011
texture, and the illusion of dimension to the work. I
had to eliminate the white and started spending more
time on my primary material - black.
I had always been using the color black in my
work but something about the Xerox toner black on
top of mylar gave a different kind of sensibility and
physicality to the work. I researched more about black
pigments and realized that black is very complex col-
or. I started to mix different pigments of black with
oil and acrylic base ink. I used the process of lithog-
raphy and started to roll up the mylar with a roller.
The lithography oil base black gives a physical depth
to the work, which absorbs the light and blocks the
visual sensation. On the other hand, the black pig-
ments that I mixed with acrylic transparent ink slowly
reveals itself when the viewers physically move around
the work, which provides the visual sensation.
What I strive to achieve is to engage the viewer's
body - the viewer's physical movements dictate his/
her personal experience of the work - like my experi-
ence as the artist when creating the work.
For more information, visit myungwonkim.com.
2011 Los AngeLes MunicipAL Art gALLery
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