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16/11/2011

Laura Ball and Jillian Ludwig

Swarm Gallery, Oakland

Swarm Gallery is pleased to present Laura Ball and Jillian Ludwig: Mystical Menagerie, on view from November 12 - December 23, 2011. An installation-based portrait by Michele Pred, Portrait of My Father, will be in the project space.

On view in the gallery will be a selection of new works on paper by San Diego-based artist Laura Ball, and Indiana-based artist Jillian Ludwig. The exhibition title, Mystical Menagerie, alludes to the presence and use of animals as symbols reflecting the artists' conceptual leanings. Laura, who received her MFA in painting from UC Berkeley, takes us on an inward journey, crossing thresholds and boundaries of our mental landscape: faults and fears, shortcomings and struggles, and the battle within the self, manifested in corporeal form. Laura paints continuously shifting composites of animals that symbolize pieces of the psyche and the primal nature of our internal impulses. Delicate, yet powerful and precise, the quality of Laura's brushwork matches the fabulous forces encountered in her work.

Jillian's work reflects in a calm and gentle manner, an evaluation on the loss of natural faming within westernized culture. Using factory animals wrapped in flowing pink ribbons and balloons, Jillian exercises the conflict between nature and genetically modified food. The short-lived and harsh existence of farmed animals is a sobering discussion. For that reason, the work is constructed in a non-threatening and often playful or humorous manner. The pastel colors and narrative appeal are tactics of gentle persuasion for the awareness of animal treatment and conscious abundance of human consumption. While Laura's work offers an opportunity for introspection, Jillian's work lends itself to an outward awareness of moral codes and practices.

In the project space, Berkeley-based artist Michele Pred, creates an homage to her father, who passed away in 2007. Allan Pred was a social scientist and a professor in the Geography department at UC Berkeley for over 40 years. Geographers, he believed, are well-placed to trace the contours of economic, social and military power and must play their part to defend democratic values against such abuses as racism, inequality and violence. His ideas had a huge impact on Michele's art-making. The installation-based portrait is titled Radical Geographer: Portrait of my Father. Michele writes: "My father passed away in 2007 at the age of 70. In the years prior to is death, Dad and I spoke about creating a collaborative art piece but never had the opportunity. His death necessarily transformed, but did not remove, my urge to collaborate...and reflect. The result is my installation/collage-based portrait of Allan. The piece includes some of the books he wrote, along with photos, writings and mementos from his life. This is my homage to him. Dad's productivity is legendary. Twenty-two books and monographs- translated into seven languages- and over seventy articles and book chapters. He was always amongst the most cited scholars in the profession. At the time of his death he was completing a new book manuscript, continuing his interest in race, identity and the making of the modern world. Portions of this book, focusing on Josephine Baker will be included in the exhibition."

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Laura Ball was born in Syracuse, New York and received a B.S. from the University of California, Davis in 1995 before going on to receive an M.F.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. She has received awards such as the Ludwig Vogelstein Grant, the Eisner Prize for Achievement in the Creative Arts at UC Berkeley, and the Department of Art Practice tuition grant at UC Berkeley. Her work can be found in the collections of Irving Blum, Beck, and Stephen Cohen, among others. Outside of the Bay Area, she has had solo and two-person exhibitions in Chicago, Hollywood, and New York. In addition to Swarm Gallery, she is represented by Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York and Peter Miller Gallery in Chicago. Laura currently resides in San Diego. This is her second exhibition at Swarm Gallery.

Jillian Ludwig received her BFA in Drawing and Printmaking from Bradley University in 2005 and went on to complete an MFA in Drawing from Clemson University in 2007. She was a 2011 SWAN Artist Honoree through Artinspired Studio One in Yorktown, Virginia. Other awards include the Technical Assistant Grant and the Mary Beasom Bishop and Francis Summer Merit Scholarship from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, both in 2007. She has held residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, and the Ox-bow Summer School of the Arts. She has had solo exhibitions in Illinois, Indiana, South Carolina, and Texas, with participated in shows across the US and in Italy. Jillian currently resides in Lafayette, Indiana. This is her first exhibition at Swarm Gallery.

Michele Pred is a Swedish-American conceptual artist. She works with found/confiscated objects and technology imbued with cultural and political meaning. Her work has been reviewed and featured by The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, ARTnews, Art in America, WIRED, Ready Made Magazine, American Craft Magazine, Associated Press Television, The San Francisco Chronicle, Corriere della Sera (Italy), TV4 and Dagens Nyheter (Sweden). Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries, art fairs and museums in London, Stockholm, New York, Bologna, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. Her work is part of the permanent collection at the 21st Century Museum, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Di Rosa Collection in Napa, CA and is held in numerous corporate and private collections. Michele Pred received her BFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA where she is an adjunct professor. She is represented by the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York and the Jack Fischer Gallery in San Francisco.

Image: Jillian Ludwig, Butterfly Sheep (2011), Graphite, gouache, pastel, color pencil on paper, 28 x 36 inches

Reception Thursday, November 17, 2011 6-8pm

Swarm Gallery
560 Second Street - Oakland, CA 94607
Gallery hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 12 - 5:30 PM + by appointment

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