For the 2020 NADA x Artnet Open, Philip Martin Gallery will feature works by Edgar Bryan, Pamela Jorden, Kristy Luck, Joanne Petit-Frère and Michael Rey.
Recent paintings by Edgar BRYAN (b.1970, lives Los Angeles, CA) like "Pianist with Braid" (2019) feature art, music and family. In "Pianist with Braid," Bryan's daughter practices a fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, the rain splashing on the tulips outside her window. Portraiture and self-portraiture as a tool to depict interiority, life and its vicissitudes has long been of interest to Bryan. An inherent contradiction in his work is the disarmingly lighthearted, at times personal imagery which is skillfully (in turns expressively and methodically) painted, a contradiction underscored by the liberal use of both traditional and contemporary materials such as oil, acrylic, and occasionally, craft store supplies.
The sun-bleached, burned-in aspect of "Silver Wedge" (2018) by Pamela JORDEN (b. 1969, Knoxville, TN) is produced by bleach that Jorden pours expressively onto dyed black upholstery linen. The play of light and transformation is furthered in layers of oil paint that are brushed and poured over the rinsed and stabilized black linen. Jorden is interested in how color appears differently over the light and dark ground: in some cases, the color is absorbed into the textured surfaces; in others, it retains its saturation depending on the ground or opacity of the paint.
Kristy LUCK (b. 1985, lives Los Angeles, CA) makes paintings that engage with the medium's tradition of depicting women in melancholic or revelatory states. Luck considers Modernism, its legacy and implications with regard to individual voice and transformation. Luck’s new paintings, like "Bulb," point to mysterious significance and contemplation. The artist has said, “I am trying to find a visual language for personal melancholia and intuition; melancholia not as a pathology, but as an illuminating discourse with oneself, and intuition as subconscious pattern recognition. I’m interested in how these emotional experiences have been dismissed or devalued when associated with the ‘feminine mind.’”
Joanne PETIT-FRÈRE (b. 1987, lives New York, NY) addresses the human body as a site of beauty and adornment. Drawing on sources ranging from African Diaspora traditions, Old West movies, the photographs of Cindy Sherman and the history of Haiti, Petit-Frère makes labor intensive tapestries and sculptures that involve weaving by hand eight or more colors of synthetic hair. In the gallery, Petit-Frère’s work is realized as sculpture; however, it is often activated by performance. Petit-Frère enlists performance as a means by which to think about our own bodies, and those around us, especially at a moment of crisis, when human touch and presence in society is increasingly charged.
Michael REY (b. 1979, Sarasota, FL) begins his oil-on-shaped panel works with automatic drawing. Abstract in their appearance, monochrome in their color, the shapes of Rey's works come to him in his dreams. They reflect his interest in not only the unconscious, but also the legacy of surrealism as a tool to explore identity. Rey's instinctive process results in objects that seem familiar, yet unrecognizable. Rey is interested in art as a place of tension and welcomes viewers’ psychological engagement with the work, whatever associations they may bring. He is interested in the human need to rationalize the inexplicable, the ability to ascribe features to abstraction. By design, Rey’s shapes can be seen as organic, mechanical, primordial, and futuristic at all once.
Philip Martin Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-6pm and by appointment. For further information and images please contact the gallery at +310-559-0100 or info@philipmartingallery.com.
Philip Martin Gallery
2712 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
+310-559-0100
info@philipmartingallery.com
