|
Newsletter 3.24.2006
Susan
Jamison: Sugar Me Softly
New Paintings and Works on Paper
April 6 - May 5
Reception with the artist: Friday April 7th, 6:00-8:00 pm
Gallery Talk with the artist: Saturday April 8th, 2:00 pm
Robert
Mellor: New Work
New Paintings
April 6 - May 5
Reception with the artist: Friday April 7th, 6:00-8:00 pm
Gallery Talk with the artist: Saturday April 8th, 2:00 pm
Irvine Contemporary is pleased to announce the opening of
two major concurrent solo exhibitions by Susan Jamison and Robert Mellor.
In our front gallery, Susan Jamison will present "Sugar
Me Softly," a group of stunning new paintings and recent works on
paper, and in our back gallery, Robert Mellor will present "New Work,"
a striking body of new paintings.
Both exhibitions will run from April 6 through May 5 with
an opening reception with the artists on Fri. April 7 at 6 PM. Jamison
and Mellor will also give gallery talks about their work on Sat. April
8 at 2 PM.
|
Susan Jamison: Sugar Me Softly
Susan Jamison's egg tempera paintings incorporate
feminine and naturalistic imagery and ordinary objects, exploring
archetypes from myths, dreams, and folktales. Plants, animals, insects,
and ordinary domestic objects resonate symbolically with the decorated
female figure in a provocative new form of fantastic realism.
|
Susan Jamison, "Sugar Me Petals,"
2006, egg tempera on panel, 20 x 16 in.
Susan Jamison, "Grab Me,
Pin Me," 2006, egg tempera on panel,
36 x 36 in.
|
Susan Jamison's haunting portraits are are powerful statements
of feminine identities that embrace contemporary themes and
resonate through the whole history of female portraiture.
These works depict women in classical Renaissance profile
with eyes closed as in a dream state. The figures are nude
and covered in henna tattoos, heads hairless and anatomically
exposed with ink transfer drawings from old medical journals.
Jamison's non-portrait paintings incorporate the decorated
arms, hands, and legs of the female body in multiple kinds
of interplay with symbolic animals and domestic objects. Many
of the works evoke a subtle humor, playfulness, and surprise
in the interactions evoked within and just outside the picture
plane. Jamison's new and highly original approach creates
powerful meditations on the female body through an interplay
of figuration, decoration, and fantasy.
About the Artist
Susan Jamison lives and works in Roanoke, VA.
She has a B.A. from James Madison University and an M.F.A.
from Rhode Island School of Design.
|
|
Robert Mellor: New
Work
Robert Mellor's multi-layered paintings immediately
arrest viewers with their highly original orchestration of space,
colors, technique. Each work draws the viewer into wonderlands of
organic, decorative, and abstract forms that at first seem to collide
but then resolve into a new kind of harmony. Mellor combines disparate
forms and colors, changes in the luster of paint, and shifts in
spatial hierarchies. A viewer is simultaneously aware of the multiple
parts of his paintings, then absorbed by the final lyrical delight
of his seemingly impossible compositions.
|
Robert Mellor, Falter, 2006,
Acrylic on canvas over panel,
36 X 26 inches
Robert Mellor, Temper, 2005,
Acrylic on canvas over panel,
72 X 48 inches
|
Mellor plays with the notions of the recognizable
and the unfamiliar and the tension this dichotomy creates.
Applying paint in overlapping layers, Mellor adds many dimensions--literally
and metaphorically--to his work. He combines colors and shapes
that simply do not "belong together" with suprisingly harmonious
results.
Artist's Statement
In my paintings, events and passages exist
which at first glance induce the viewer to establish the relationship
with different parts of the work, then to absorb the entirety
of the work. A painting will meander between recognizable
and unfamiliar. Each application of color shakes the foundations
of previously applied paint. Colors are free from their designations
to interact and often compete for attention. The same applies
to the bold graphic quality of articulated patterns.
In sum, Mellor has created his own, unique form
of beauty, where he willingly pairs hard edge lines, disparate
forms, patterns and colors, changes the quality of paint from
lustrous to flat, and shifts spatial hierarchies. For Mellor,
beauty reigns in the chaotic and his paintings resonate with
a melodious cacophony.
About the Artist
Robert Mellor lives and works in Chatham, VA.
He holds a B.A. from Skidmore College, NY and an M.F.A from
Claremont College, CA.
|
|
Irvine Contemporary In New York During Armory
Show Week
Our show on 29th St. was a great success, and an indicator of future
creative ways to "do New York" during the art fair weeks. Many
thanks to all--artists, friends, collectors, supporters--who helped make
this show an exciting venture!
Here's what Artinfo.com reported:
D.C. Gallery Heads for the Big Apple
Among the gallery receptions Friday night in Chelsea was an unlikely
host: Irvine Contemporary of Washington, D.C. had rented out a 3,000-square-foot
loft run by Aurora Gallery to showcase the work of 22 artists. "We
wanted to outdo the fairs in our own way by showing the caliber of
artists in the D.C. area," explained Irvine's associate director.
Most of the artists prominently featured had sold works by the end
of the night, including one of Josh Levine's untitled trophy-head sculptures
for $5,000 and Orly Cogan's Tropical Lecture of erotic embroidery on
vintage fabric for $1,850. Three of Susan Jamison's delicate portraits
of hairless, nude women exposing vine-like veins were snatched up before
the opening by collectors on a waiting list for such works, and her
Blush Me, featuring butterflies and roses, sold at the show (all executed
in egg tempera on panels and priced at $3,500 each).
Pictures from the Exhibition
In our next Newsletter:
Major New York Collector Purchases Entire Celebrity Portraits from
the Warhol Factory Years exhibition. Collector has begun plans for
major museum exhibitions of our curated collection of photographs.
Future Exhibitions for 2006: Ju-Yeon Kim, Amy Ross; "Animalia"
group show; Introductions 2; more.
News about the gallery move!
|
