 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
||||||
 Wonderland looks wonderful Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Francesca Gabbiani, entitled Wonderland. Gabbiani is known for her large-scale, extraordinarily intricate, cut-paper collages with acrylic and gouache. The title piece of the show, a sizeable interior with a vase full of radiantly warm flowers contrasted with a dark staircase behind, refers both to Lewis Carroll's fantastical fairy-tale and the 1970's murders in Los Angeles on Wonderland Avenue. In another work, "Spectacle IV" barren tree limbs appear as calligraphic lines laid over saturated swaths of sunset color. Overall the work appears stylized, fresh and fiercely cinematic with a So-Cal aesthetic. A clean, modern sensibility exists alongside retro-noir atmosphere. Unavoidably empty domestic interiors create tension and sense of foreboding. Gabbinai's interiors are comparable to Giorgio de Chirico's eerily vacant (and surrealist) scenes although missing De Chirico's elongated looming shadows. Montreal-born Gabbiani repeatedly won the Swiss Federal Award of Art, where she attended the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Geneva. The artist had two solo museum exhibitions this past summer, including a mid-career retrospective at the CentrePasquArt, Bienne, Switzerland and a show of new work at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. Her work may be seen currently at MOCA, Los Angeles. Lora Reynolds Gallery hosts an opening reception and artist talk, Saturday, January 14, 6-8 p.m. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, February 25, 2006. For more information contact (512) 215-4965.
|
 |
Bucknall mixes it up at D. Berman Don't miss Malcolm Bucknall's new work in the exhibition Familiars. Fiends. Funnies. Tread Thee Light Fantastic, on view at D. Berman Gallery. Eclectic to say the least, Bucknall's drawings and paintings have art-historical and non-art-historical influences and feature mixtures of animal and human imagery. Together highly specific and naturalistic details suggest allegorical underpinnings throughout this amazingly articulated yet intensely visionary work. His zoomorphic creations also evoke whimsy and humor. In addition to being comedic, these elegant ink drawings and oil paintings are inspired by the Elizabethan portraiture, 17th and 18th century European still-life, American westerns, and classic camp. The artist states, "Through precise renditions of ancestors, progeny, and enchantments that never were, I ask the viewer to "Remember when?" and to join in "Let's pretend." I look to delineate states of being and states of mind common to us all." Bucknall attended the Chelsea Art School, London, The University of Texas at Austin (BFA), and the University of Washington (MFA). While he has exhibited in New York, Seattle, New Orleans, Taos, Austin, Dallas and Houston, his work is now exclusively with D. Berman. Bucknall has work in numerous public and private collections, and has even been used as cover art for releases by Nirvana and Jesus Lizard. This exhibition will be on view through Saturday, March 4. For more information contact (512) 477-8877.
Two popular artists do their thing Carol Marine & Gordon Fowler opens at Wally Workman Gallery on Saturday, January 21. Carol Marine's paintings depict various types of flowers in glass jars. They are painted within closely cropped compositions, most likely from photos. Their simplicity and bright color is appealing and accessible As Marine states: "I paint things I like. That's it." Marine received a BFA in Studio Art at The University of Texas at Austin in 2001 and lives and works in Austin. Gordon Fowler is known for watercolors and oil paintings, usually portraying landscapes and traditional Western scenes, including farms and the people who work there. His easy manipulation of the painting mediums is immediately apparent. Fowler uses loose gestural brushstrokes to create impressionist plein air images. He often uses a single brush for a painting, mixing the paint right on the canvas. This exhibition is on view through Sunday, February 19. For more information contact (512) 472-7428. 
|
