Dion Johnson / Daniel Brice
dal 14/6/2013 al 19/7/2013
Segnalato da
14/6/2013
Dion Johnson / Daniel Brice
Western Project, Los Angeles
Vivid Slipstream by Johnson is a new body of work of dynamic opposites; of expansiveness and compression, darkness and light. In the West Room, for the first time Brice exhibits small color oil paintings on paper.
DION JOHNSON: Vivid Slipstream / New Paintings
Western Project is proud to present the second solo exhibition by Los Angeles artist, Dion Johnson. Vivid Slipstream is a new body of work of dynamic opposites; of expansiveness and compression, darkness and light. In the tradition of Karl Benjamin and Lorser Feitelson, and their interest in the environment and landscape, Johnson uses color to evoke the contemporary urban, digital and natural landscape of Southern California. Influenced by the architecture of Eero Saarinen and geometric gestures of Ellsworth Kelly, Johnson skews the vocabulary of abstraction into a hybrid techno-language.
Johnson begins his images with drawings on his Mac Book Air and then creates each work by hand. His compositions use broad open shapes with convex/concave edges against multi-planed bands, evoking atmospheric spatial shifts. The diagonal structures possibly allude to car windows or an opening retina, each exposing a radiant vastness. More, the ten-foot long Propeller work suggests both a day and night window with its black and white panels. Johnson's use of color is intuitive, historically much the same as John McLaughlin, though his Pop inspired vision comes from the commercial tangle of cities and billboards of Southern California. Johnson's work is a clear balance of the harmonic and dissonant qualities of our environment; whether observing the curvature of freeway interchange or bright noon daylight, the paintings mirror the complexity of sensations lived on the edge of the Pacific Rim.
Johnson is represented by Western Project, Los Angles, De Buck Gallery, New York, and Marty Walker Gallery, Dallas, Texas. He has shown at the Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, Stephen Stux Gallery, New York, Carl Berg Gallery and Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles, James Kelly Contemporary in Santa Fe, Torrance Art Museum, and other galleries and museums across the US.
His work is in public collections such as The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, The Capital Group Companies, Los Angeles, California, Creative Artists Agency, Century City, California, Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, Ohio, Wellington Management, Boston, Massachusetts, and many more.
----
DANIEL BRICE: New Works on Paper
Western Project is proud to present new works by Los Angeles artist, Daniel Brice in the West Room. For the first time he will exhibit small color oil paintings on paper. Inspired by the landscape and coastline of Oxnard, the images relate the nuance of colors endemic to Southern California. With minimal rectilinear compositions, the body of work suggests expanses of land and sea; cool marine atmospheres, the summer heat of the adjacent hills or the twilight rim of the ocean horizon. His surfaces appear aged and worn by repeated layering of oil paint. The transparent planes of color describe both the sublime aspect of the environment and the often pungent sensation of the Pacific shoreline. The work moves alongside the paths of other geometric or color field precedents: Brice Marden, Richard Diebenkorn, and Barnett Newman. Brice's color is his tool in intuiting the natural world; each work an intimate construction and experience of the land stretched against the sea.
Brice has shown in galleries and museums in New York, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Atlanta, among other locations. He has twice been an artist in residence at the Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico and is in numerous private and public collections.
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 15, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Daniel Brice in West Room
WESTERN PROJECT
2762 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034
GALLERY HOURS : Tuesday – Saturday 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Free admission