Philip Martin Gallery is proud to present "Beginnings," an exhibition of new paintings, fiber works and sculptures by Los Angeles-based artists Tomory DODGE, Rema GHULOUM, Christy MATSON, David McDONALD, Aaron MORSE, Laurie NYE and Sung Jik YANG. In their respective bodies of work, these seven artists of different ages and backgrounds consider the various ways in which the art object functions at the intersection of interiority and personal expression at the beginning of the second quarter of the 21st-century.
The dynamic abstract paintings of Tomory DODGE (b. 1974, Denver, CO) activate deep pictorial space through a range of painterly techniques. The striking color combinations in Dodge's work assert push-pull and other visual relationships, with elements in the foreground moving against elements in the background. Dodge has long connected his work to the conversation in painting around photography, screen and print-based media that goes back at least as far as Pop Art. In today's AI climate, Tomory Dodge's work can be seen as in some sense figuring the questions we now ask with regard to how we intuit and follow patterns and networks.
The oil-and-acrylic paintings of Rema GHULOUM (b. 1978, North Hollywood, CA) are built up over months of studio work. While some of Ghuloum's paintings evoke atmospheric conditions with only a hint of identifiable landscape — light dissolving into mist, the glow of dawn, the depth of twilight — other pieces suggest architectural thresholds or interior spaces that exist only as emotional impressions. The resulting spaces invite healing and introspection, with meaning ultimately guided by the viewer's experience. A Reiki practitioner, Ghuloum actively moves energies in her work, aware of the deep connections between how we feel and what we make, what it feels like to stand in front of an art object and connect with it.
Christy MATSON (b. 1979, Seattle, WA) makes woven, wall-mounted pieces that combine the skill and sensitivity of painting and hand weaving with the artist-directed process of the Jacquard loom. Matson begins her process with watercolors, ink drawings, collages and other works-on-paper. Sometimes she works directly in the landscape; other times, she works in response to memories, or something she has researched. Matson's sense of abstraction plays into the ways in which textiles work while at the same time engaging their role as a means of representation, drawing on the history of textiles both as a popular image repository and one of culture's most important methods for interpreting information and the world in which we live.
The table-top sculptures of David McDONALD (b. 1962, Liverpool, UK) utilize nuanced shifts in color and texture to bring out the feel of his three-dimensional works. Moving around McDonald's pieces, we see broad passages of intensity, temperature and hue with repeating shapes marking out basic sculptural forms; up close, subtle changes in color and surface pattern — made with a range of tools — emphasize the nitty-gritty complexities in each piece. David McDonald's artistic method underlines a sense of temporal and material accretion, with each addition to the sculpture informing previous choices, creating language for, and dialogue between, maker, viewer and object.
In the work of Aaron MORSE (b. 1974, Tucson, AZ) landscape is non-hierarchical; time is fluid; and imagery, both abstract and representational - whether drawn from textbooks, postcards, advertising, comic books, collage, drawings, paintings, or a range of lived experiences - is a multiverse of possibility and interpretation. Morse's paintings and works-on-paper invite us to consider myth, nature and culture through dynamic compositions that combine their elements in colorful and complex layers. Aaron Morse’s work engages with human and environmental concerns, often with a view toward our greater narratives about ourselves and the world in which we live.
For Laurie NYE (b. 1972, Memphis, TN), nature is a place of self-discovery, connection and celebration. Her vivid brushwork, succinct color, and sophisticated use of line breaks up the picture plane, emphasizing its materiality, flatness, and the construction of painterly space.
South Korean–born painter Sung Jik YANG (b. 1989 Suwon, South Korea) creates evocative paintings that capture the quiet intimacy, psychological depth, and spontaneous energy of modern life. Working primarily in the alla prima (wet-on-wet) oil painting technique, Yang applies quick, decisive brushstrokes in a single sitting, channeling the fluid immediacy of figures like Édouard Manet. Sung Jik Yang structures his paintings as direct encounters between viewer and subject. Yang comments, “I capture the appearance of people that I paint. I love their spontaneous image and I try my best to present my interpretation of the human subject."
"Beginnings" is on view November 14 - December 12, 2026. There will be a reception for the artists Saturday, November 14 from 5-8pm.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday from 11-5. For additional images or information please email info@philipmartingallery.com, or call 323-507-2037. Philip Martin Gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles, CA.
