The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery is located at
4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027
In "UnNatural", Scott Canty has curated an elegant exhibition of art that explores a collection of artists revealing stunning images of raw work that titillates the imagination.
Artists Lisa Adams, Fatemeh Burnes, Merion Estes,
and Constance Mallison
explore the subject of trees in a most unique way.
Between the reality of the image and the stroke of the brush
there is a fine line of conceptual interpretation that happens when one views a work of art.
What I mean by the word RAW is that some of this artwork reveals the depth of an image beneath the surface of the natural element.
The dressing, finishing & refining of a piece of wood here is like the unnatural or painful exposure process of peeling back the flesh, by removal of the skin or natural integument and revealing the soul and veins of the character of the wood, tree, or forests.
At first glance, the term "UnNatural" evokes an uncomfortable feeling, and yet, once one enters into the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and turns to the left corridor, one comes to understand just how appropriate the term is to explain the very elements of the forest and trees that come reaching out at you directly from the panels and canvas.
The artist Constance Mallison has captured the essence of the scenes in vivid detail creating 'UnNatural' figures made out of tree branches and leaves. The way she painted the leaves and trees is anything but 'UnNatural', instead, it's the figures she's rendered as nudes with tree branches as the flesh and the texture of the wood and leaves as the body parts, veins and limbs that is the part that looks the most 'UnNatural' of all. The leaves appear to be Sycamore leaves, but there are also Birch, and a variety of trees which are depicted in her paintings. Some of the scenes call to mind the rich season of the fall with the lively colored leaves while other scenes bring the barren winter tree limbs into full focus. Some of the scenes reveal the debris that one finds in a simple pile of leaves when one walks through a park or down a particular wooded environment or tree-lined city street. There are balloons, plastic eggs, scraps of paper windblown into the pile too. Yet, the images are breathtakingly beautiful and painted in precise detail. Even the veins in the leaves, the texture of the bark on the trees and the faces of the figurines stand out as intricately passionate and obviously erotic.
Lisa Adams reveals trees in light of abstract and conceptual realities.
Adams renders her tree images with passionate messages like the hearts
and initials carved into the wood referring to some romantic tryst that needed to be recorded onto the skin of the trees. Her landscapes also carry the feel of the conflict between the cityscape and the tree life
depicted in the backgrounds, sometimes even referencing smoke stacks in the distance weaved into the image very subtly.
http://www.lisamakesart.com
The work of Merion Estes depicts scenes of varying degrees of abstract vibration.
Some of the scenes use visual effects that coalesce into rich broad bands of colors
which pulse throughout her work. Some of the titles of her works also evoke images that weave "Collateral damage" into the heart of the subject and in one particular piece, it appears as the inside of the womb and the child appears 'UnNatural' and ghost-like.
http://www.merionestes.com
In the work of Fatemeh Burnes one finds the more romantic and playful
renditions of abstract landscapes with the greens of grassy knolls,
the dark hues & texture of trees and mountains, and the blues of sky and sea.
The meaning of UnNatural in her landscapes escape
into a surrealist realm of both soothing color and the conflicting demands of imagination.
http://www.fatemehburnes.com
"SAVING PARADISE" stands to deliver some of the most breathtaking views of traditional landscape paintings created by artists of The CALIFORNIA ART CLUB and Juried by Jean Stern,
Director of the Irvine Museum.
For this Fine Art Trekkin' adventure in the Hollywood burrow of Los Angeles, I took my mother as I am familiar with her love of traditional landscape subjects and her love of nature. This is definitively the best exhibition to take one's mom to hear about it's beauty for years to come. My mother gushed over the delicate intricacies of the orange poppy fields, the spring daisies and the splash of violets and wild flowers dotting several of the canvases in the exhibition. For me, it was Junn Roca's 'Tejon Ranch Wildflowers in May' that cinched it for me.
I stood there transfixed for what seemed like hours, as I took in the depth of color weaved into a scene of orange and green fields stretching out into forever. "These paintings just make me want to paint!" I told my mother beside me. I mean, I'm a photographer, and yes I can shoot a picture of a beautiful scene, but these paintings took me to a place where I just wanted to stand there, breath in the fresh air and hold a paint brush to dip occasionally into a jar of paint and experience the scene in its intimate splendor.
The California Art Club was established in 1909 and is a member-based, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to expanding the knowledge and appreciation of traditional fine arts in the fields of painting, drawing and sculpting. California Art Club is located at 75 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105
www.californiaartclub.org
Some of the most stunning images of flowers are saved for the conclusion of my essay,
as I wish to express how enticing and romantic this exhibition of
Lawrence Yun titled "Hybrid Romance" turned out to be. Normally, I will take my mother out to see the Monrovia Nurseries or the Armstrong Nurseries or even Home Depot on occasion when all the flowers are blooming. That's because those nurseries are local to our area and we can get around pretty quickly from one garden to the other, to shop, bring home some adopted flowers, or just browse through the lovely fields of potted flowers. Sometimes these excursions can be a trek all the way to San Diego to see and photograph the fields of flowers blooming in the spring with both mom and dad
when we have the time or a free weekend.
But when one comes upon the magnificent display of flowers in the field of art, there is an incredible transformation of spirit that occurs in the soul. That is what we experienced here standing at the center of Lawrence Yun's exhibition of drawings at LAMAG. The transformation happens instantaneously. There is an immediate smile that creeps across the lips and blooms into a full on gasp as the roses, violets, birds of paradise and their leaves pop out of their frames. I could almost smell their aromas as the images were so vivacious and real that my senses came to full attention...already having been stimulated by the trees, the vast poignant mountain fields in the rooms adjacent...these images just delighted our hearts.
Do try to come down and see these magnificent exhibition in the center of the Hollywood area of Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, presented by the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs!
These works are here until May 6, 2012!
DON'T MISS THIS INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!
The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery is located at
4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027
My mom often accompanies me in exploring the art exhibitions in Los Angeles!
March 23, 2012
March 23, 2012
Photographs by Ginger Van Hook
