An ongoing dialogue present in previous issues of Installation has centered around the influence of the environment on an artist’s practice. In Desaturated Rainbow a traveling exhibition of six New York and six Los Angeles artists, curators Amir H. Fallah and Colette Robbins explore the color palette used by artists from coast to coast. Perhaps it’s the climate or the cultural history embedded in the fibers of Los Angeles and New York, but the exhibition points to a similar trend that we have encountered in the past. New York artists use a limited color palette whereas their West Coast counterparts engage with a more colorful spectrum. The Los Angeles artists featured in Desaturated Rainbow are Alison Blickle, Wendell Galdstone, Sherin Guirguis, Amir H. Fallah, Dani Tull, Feodor Voronov, in addition to NYC based artists Justin Amrhein, Micah Ganske, Norm Paris, Colette Robbins, Michael Schall, and Heeseop Yoon. Desaturated Rainbow opens July 20 at Kopeikin Gallery and is on view through August 24.
Heeseop Yoon, Sherin Guirguis, and Feodor Voronov
Heeseop Yoon, Sherin Guirguis, and Feodor Voronov’s drawings amass layers and layers of small lines and elements to create a contained but extremely ornate composite space. Because of the contrasting palettes between Yoon’s black and white tape drawing installations and Guirguis’ and Voronov’s colorful drawings, one can view how much a vivid palette or limited palette can cause such different emotional impacts on a viewer.
Justin Amrhein and Micah Ganske
Justin Amrhein and Micah Ganske both make system based works that reflect the future and manifest an interest in engineering and science. Amrhein’s synthetic trees and Ganske’s fictional space elevator show alternate futures where technology can augment nature.
Dani Tull and Michael Schall works play with elliptical shapes and intricate textures. Both artists have a type of controlled chaos present in their works. In Schall’s graphite drawings, there is a cloud of dust that is being contained by a tarp and in Tull’s sculptures there are holes that appear throughout the spider web patterning on his sculptures.
inlaid enamel, oil paint, glass beads, aqua resin, 22” x 26”, 2013
Alison Blickle, Amir, H. Fallah, Wendell Gladstone, Norm Paris and Colette Robbins
Alison Blickle, Amir, H. Fallah, Wendell Gladstone, Norm Paris and Colette Robbins all have figuration present in their works. Gladstone’s and Fallah’s works look like either a fantastic ritualistic act is about to happen or has just occurred. Blickle, Paris, and Robbins are fusing figures with some sort of history. Blickle’s painting is from her series of failed Hollywood starlets. Paris and Robbins both create works that look like they have been unearthed from a fictional archeological expedition.
Images courtesy of Kopeikin Gallery and Pierogi Gallery
To purchase contact Paul Kopeikin, info@kopeikingallery.com
Feature Image: Wendell Gladstone, You, Me, Him, acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”, 2013