Philip Martin Gallery is proud to present "Meditations," an online exhibition of works by Rema Ghuloum, Christy Matson and Laurie Nye. In their respective practices, these three artists speak with their own voices, imagining place by way of personhood and process, abstraction and imagination.
“Invisible threads are the strongest ties,” Friedrich Nietzsche notes. What does the artist meditate on in the studio? What do they engage with? What are the threads that tie together one's work? In the course of serious practice, attending to connections - be they to family or locations, internal energy or the outside world - opens the doors to new ideas and serves a means by which to explore new possibilities.
Rema Ghuloum comments that the energy in her paintings, "can be seen with your whole body and felt with your heart." She starts her paintings on the floor, orienting them in different directions, pouring paint from buckets and bottles to build up visual density and pictorial space. As a given work comes together, Ghuloum places it vertically, and then - working very slowly - scumbles, glazes and hand-sands the surface of the piece to produce deep, ineffable atmospheres of deep color and feeling.
Christy Matson’s wall-mounted works combine the skill, sensitivity and craft of painting with that of weaving. Matson begins with drawings she then realizes by way of a Jacquard loom. The result is an art object of beauty and depth that explores not only visual feeling, but also the nature of art objects, how we make and look at them. In Matson’s hands, the Jacquard loom - patented in the early 19th-century by French industrialist Joseph Marie Jacquard - is a machine of precision, spontaneity and expression.
In Laurie Nye's work, painting is a motif that offers utopia, expression and freedom, particularly when depicting nature and internal states. Laurie Nye considers a range of Visionary approaches, particularly those of the French 19th-century movement, Les Nabis. Nye lives and works in both California and Tennessee. Her table top still life works - many of which are painted at her mother's table in Memphis - refer to the traditions of artists like Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse while at the same time opening up new worlds for Laurie Nye’s own personal vision and interest in place and feelings of belonging.
Rema Ghuloum (b. 1978, North Hollywood, CA) received her BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach, CA) in 2007 and her MFA from California College of the Arts (San Francisco, CA) in 2010. Rema Ghuloum's work will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery in September 2024. Recent projects include "The Sky Has a Thousand Windows" (Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA) and "When the Day is Done" (David De Boer, Antwerp, Belgium). Recent institutional projects include, "Color Fields" (2023, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA) and "Shaping Gravity: Art Beyond the Picture Plane" (2023, Forest Lawn Museum, Los Angeles, CA). In 2022, Ghuloum was included in “The Holographic Principle” at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Solo exhibitions include Et al. (San Francisco, CA); Emma Grey HQ (Los Angeles, CA); Edward Cella Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Five Car Garage (Santa Monica, CA); Sargent’s Daughters (New York, NY); Contemporary Art Matters (Columbus, OH); Hawthorn Contemporary (Milwaukee, WI); Jacob’s (Los Angeles, CA) and Sonce Alexander Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Group exhibitions include The Pit (Los Angeles, CA); Make Room (Los Angeles, CA); La Loma Projects (Los Angeles, CA); Odd Ark LA (Los Angeles, CA); Part 2 Gallery (Oakland, CA); Harris Gallery, University of Laverne (Laverne, CA); Five Car Garage (Santa Monica, CA); Nathalie Karg (New York, NY); Mother Gallery (Beacon, NY); Taymore Grahne Projects (London, UK); Meyer Reigger (Berlin, Germany) and Baik Gallery (Seoul, Korea). Ghuloum’s work is included in the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Works on Paper Collection at the Legion of Honor Museum (San Francisco, CA). Ghuloum’s work has been reviewed in Art Forum, Hyperallergic, CARLA, the Los Angeles Times, Fabrik, and LA Weekly. Ghuloum lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Christy Matson (b. 1979, Seattle, WA) received her BFA from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and her MFA from California College of the Arts (San Francisco, CA). Matson’s work has recently been featured in solo exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Volume Gallery (Chicago, IL); Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI); Cranbook Museum of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI); and Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach, CA). Her work was highlighted in such group exhibitions as, "Pocket Universe," Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); “Arcadia and Elsewhere,” James Cohan Gallery (New York, NY), “Seeing Chicago,” curated by Duro Olowu (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL); “40 Under 40: Craft Futures” (Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC); John Michael Kohler Art Center (Sheboygan, WI); Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston, TX); Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN); Municipio di Maniago, (Pordenone Italy); Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA); Ciurlionis National Museum of Art (Kaunas, Lithuania); Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL); Bakersfield Museum of Art (Bakersfield, CA); Craft and Folk Art Museum, (Los Angeles, CA); and Museum of Craft and Folk Art (San Francisco, CA). Articles and reviews on Christy Matson’s work have appeared in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sculpture, Fiber Arts, Textile, Artillery, Surface Design Journal and Time Out. Matson is represented by Volume (Chicago, IL) and Rebecca Camacho Presents (San Francisco, CA). Christy Matson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Laurie Nye (b. 1972, Memphis, TN) received her BFA from the Memphis College of Art (Memphis, TN), and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA). Nye’s work was the subject of a recent solo exhibition “My River Runs to Thee,” at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Her solo exhibition, “It Wasn’t A Dream It Was A Flood,” at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) was an Artforum Best of Year 2021 feature. Nye’s group shows include, “Pocket Universe,” Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); "A Particular Kind of Heaven," Parrasch Heijnen (Los Angeles, CA); "The Moth & The Thunderclap," Modern Art (London, UK, 2023); "Encounter," Rachel Uffner (New York, NY, 2022); “BodyLand,” Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin, Germany, 2022); and "Unnatural Nature: Post-Pop Landscapes,” Acquavella (New York, NY, 2022). Laurie Nye’s artist project, “Chickasaw Moon,” at Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA) was an Artforum Critic’s Pick. Laurie Nye’s work has recently been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Van Doren Waxter (New York, NY); Bark Berlin Gallery (Berlin, Germany); The Pit (Glendale, CA), Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA); Big Pictures LA (Los Angeles) Blake and Vargas, (Berlin, Germany); The Dot Project, (London, UK); Day and Night Gallery (Atlanta, GA); La Loma Projects, (Pasadena, CA); and Unpaved Gallery (Yucca Valley, CA). Nye has work in the OZ Art Northwest Arkansas, (Bentonville, AR) collection. Her work has been reviewed in such publications as Artillery, Los Angeles Times, Artforum, FAD Magazine and LA Weekly. Nye lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
"Meditations: Rema Ghuloum, Christy Matson, Laurie Nye" is online July 2- July 16, 2024.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11-5 and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles CA 90065. For additional images and information please call 323-507-2037 or email info@philipmartingallery.com.
