COAST TO COLOR: 2016 Group Exhibition

Opening Exhibition, Laura Korman Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center, Santa Monica
January 7 – March 5, 2016
Reception: Saturday, January 16, 5-8 p.m.
COAST TO COLOR
Laura Korman Gallery 2016 Group Exhibition
Laura Korman Gallery is pleased to present COAST TO COLOR, a group exhibition featuring artists Cara Barer, Jordan Eagles, James Lecce, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Maureen McQuillan, Katherine Rohrbacher, and Randall Stolzfus. The exhibition is on view from January 7 through March 5, 2016 with a public reception on Saturday, January 16, 5-8 p.m.
Representing artists from across the east and west coasts, COAST TO COLOR delivers a vibrant selection of color-intensive works from seven artists that challenge the limitations set forth by traditional media to bring forth expressive ignitions of color.
coast (verb): “to continue to move or advance after effort has ceased;
keep going on acquired momentum.”
Drawing reference from Pointillist techniques, Randall Stoltzfus builds continuous, intricately layered circular patterns with oil, adding carefully selected pigments, gold leaf, and other media to produce abstract horizons of deep blue and white. From afar, this textured layering produces a celestial glow of nearly distinguishable forms that emerge from indigo shadows. Meanwhile, the deeply pigmented, iridescent burgundy of Jordan Eagles’ resin encased works composed of bovine blood and mixed media produce a contrasting visceral effect. Color is made reflective and commodified in solid form – suspended just out of reach behind its glassy surface, part-art and part-scientific specimen.
For artist James Lecce, color and form are fluidly intertwined – elegant shapes emerge from pools of mixed pigments and acrylic emulsion, poured with calculated precision. These liquid formations surge in a rippled sea of greens and violets wrapped in metallic veins of gold and silver. Maureen McQuillan adopts a similarly labor-intensive method – slowly and repetitively laying ink lines in layers of acrylic polymer. Manipulating these agents to fold and bend into ribboned spirals, the colorful optic patterns left behind seemingly reverberate to the surface below.
Artist Cara Barer channels familiar iconography in her still life photographs – dyed book pages from obsolete, discarded novels are ruffled and carefully arranged in circular forms, much like spiritual mandalas or blooming flowers. Transformed by color and arrangement, these books are equipped to take on new meanings as sculptural objects that are photographed and printed at a large scale – blurring the lines between object, sculpture, and photography. Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann similarly creates recurring circular shapes – staining paper and dripping paint as a base for her spherical “Cauldron” compositions surge and splatter color across delicate white yupo paper. For Katherine Rohrbacher, color serves as an effusive communicative device – balancing monochrome black and white with colorful pattern and glitter work in a constant push and pull throughout her “Rohrsacher” portraiture.
COAST TO COLOR highlights the infinite vocabulary of color through a range of media; serving as a psychological and communicative tool in engaging with the viewer and their response.