calendario eventi  :: 

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7/1/2005

Two exhibitions

Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles

MOIRA HAHN
WES CHRISTENSEN
Artist Reception: Sat. January 8, 6-8PM


Moira Hahn
“Twilight Chorus” Recent Paintings

Koplin Del Rio Gallery is pleased to announce it’s first solo exhibition with Los Angeles based painter Moira Hahn.

Hahn’s watercolor paintings in “Twilight Chorus” transport the viewer to scenes from heaven and hell, populated by Japanese deities, demons and anime characters. During a recent trip to Kyoto, Hahn, who has studied Japanese art and traveled extensively in Japan over the past twenty five years, noticed striking similarities between the iconography of Catholicism she grew up with and ancient Buddhist art describing hell. Her paintings reflect similarities between hells, updating the concept with themes including mass marketing and the ubiquity of anime in both cultures.

A related body of work emerged from Hahn’s observation of the natural world, particularly the behavior of birds in her backyard and a host of feral cats that lurk nearby. Hahn’s study of nineteenth century Japanese ukiyo-e masters Kunisada (Toyokuni), Kuniyoshi, and Zeshin inspired her to create scenes in which the birds attempt to level the playing field. In “Revenge of the Tori”, for example, an atelier of vigilant birds print “Wanted” posters of neighborhood cats.

Currently, Hahn is a Full Time Assistant Professor of Art at Santiago Canyon College, in Orange, California. She received an Art Matters Fellowship for visual art in 1992. She has also been awarded an artist grant (Art Alliance/Tribute Fund, 1997) and full tuition scholarship in 1998 from California State University, Fullerton, where she completed her Master of Fine Arts Degree in 2000. Hahn has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and has had two solo exhibitions in Japan. Her work can be seen in collections of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, in San Francisco; the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC; the Oakland Museum; the Smithsonian Institution; and UCLA Medical Center.

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Wes Christensen
"American Shots" : Works on Paper

Koplin Del Rio Gallery in pleased to announce its fourth solo show of new work by
Los Angeles based artist Wes Christensen.

“American Shots” refers to the cinematic “two shot”, more commonly seen in films from the 1930’s and 40’s, where the frame crops two or more actors from the knees up. Christensen’s scenes emphasize the action and reaction of its characters using a similar framing technique, while often alluding to multiple historical references, old and new, from David Lynch, to Luis Buñuel, to Ingres. The rich surfaces of these works are comprised multi-layered applications of watercolor, gouache and colored pencils.

The small scale and tight rendering of each work compels the viewer to interact with these intricate scenes. The works emphasize the gesture and space between the figures, each stressing a single action. The artist highlights human gesture in particular to transmit narratives of history, art and literature.

In the work entitled Charades, Christensen uses a narrative of two men fighting with bones, a cleverly subtle reference to a photograph of painter James Ensor and friend Ernest Rousseau posed in a similar stance. Larger history lessons can be found within these narratives, though perhaps not essential to the immediate enjoyment of these little wonders.

Wes Christensen currently teaches at Laguna College of Art and Design and has exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States, including the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor, and Riverside Art Museum. He was awarded an NEA Visual Arts Fellowship and has also published a number of articles in arts and archaeology magazines.

Image:
Wes Christensen
Charades, 2004, watercolor, pencil on paper , 8 5/8" x 7 7/8"

For more info please contact the gallery manager Sara Cembalisty @ 310.657.9843.

Koplin Del Rio Gallery
464 N. Robertson Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90048

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