Women Around Town, June 2015

Here are my selections of exhibitions of work by women artists in So. California for the month of June. I want to begin by recommending this month’s edition of Artnews  it is a “must-read” as it is dedicated to women in the art world.

*Spotlight on Cheryl Dullabaun in “Western Dreams” Exhibition at Groundspace Projects

Cheryl Dullabaun’s Buffalo Hunt

Groundspace Projects in downtown L.A. presents Western Dreams a group exhibition of artworks by Jorin Bossen, Cheryl Dullabaun, James Osgood and Julie Scott.  Touching on dreams of the West both contemporary and historical, the artists in this show are exploring through their artworks thoughts of romance, plunder, re-wilding and the an approach to material that leaves the least trace.  Rich in both imagery and media, Western Dreams includes painting, drawing, photo-based assemblage and sculpture.

Redlands visual artist, Cheryl Dullabaun works in a variety of media, with photo-based work being her métier. She experiments with various photographic methods including the use of the pinhole camera, and involves her passion for the historical by incorporating nostalgic paraphernalia with her own as well as appropriated photographs into her work. At the Groundspace exhibit, her work focuses on the West as the source of dreams. It is place we still look to find freedom, independence, and abundance. Works such as Buffalo Hunt and Dying Ranch/Wind River Reservation, are based on a dystopian dream of the West where plunder, waste and extinction follow the white man’s journey into a once wild, bountiful Eden. Dullabaun, who is also very passionate about animal preservation, focuses on the buffalo in these examples. The artist explains that they are about massacre, extinction and sacrifice. She uses an appropriated photograph of buffalo skulls that is framed in gold. These are mounted on her own photograph which is covered in red pigment and resin and then the artist shoots bullet holes in them, highlighting those with gold leaf. The red of course refers to blood and martyrdom; in this case it is as if the animals themselves were martyrs. Dullabaun’s remarkable techniques can be appreciated in a hand-painted photographic triptych of an idyllic vista near the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming was taken with a pinhole camera captures the shattered dreams of a once rich landscape. June 13-July 11, 2015. Opening reception: June 13th; 6-9 p.m.

Ruth Weisberg

*Jack Rutberg Fine Arts presents Ruth Weisberg: Reflections Through Time.  This exhibition by the notable artist includes a wide selection from Weisberg’s oeuvre including lithographs dating back to the 1970s, as well as current works that reflect on her own history as well as the conflation of cultural experience and art history. Other examples in the exhibition represent Weisberg’s continued interest in and inspiration from artists such as Veronese, Corot, Cagnacci, Wm. Blake and others. Weisberg is known for her ethereal paintings where using veils of washes and tones, she brings the historical into the present. Opens June 13- Aug. 29, 2015. A special conversation between the artist and Jack Rutberg on July 11 at 8:00 p.m. Seating will be limited and reservations required.

Ann Chamberlin

*Vaivén, New Paintings
 from Mexico by Ann Chamberlin is the current exhibition at Lora Schlesinger Gallery. (Note her new location at Bergamot, Suite B5b). These narrative and whimsical paintings depict people on the move and at various locations such as the airport or a hotel lobby. Within the work, there is no singular linear story being told, rather they are several scenarios occurring at the same time. Some of these narratives explore social and political scenarios that are intriguing, endearing, and at times unsettling. For example, a crime is being committed which is subtly depicted amongst the narrative. “For example in the painting, Money Counters in Panama, 10 women surround a table sorting and counting boxes of cash. The bills are compiled and stacked neatly into cardboard boxes. In the foreground, a woman with a red dress addresses the viewer, with a notebook in hand. The somber look on their faces, their undergarments peeking through their patterned dresses, and the small island in the distance, creates an open-ended narrative for the audience to interpret the work.” This is an intriguing body of work, appealing because of the rendering style of the artist, and inviting due to the clever yet provocative anecdotes that abound.” Thru July 11, 2015.

Seda Saar

*Prism is a solo exhibition of work by SCWCA member Seda Saar currently on view at L.A. Artcore. Saar’s work is informed by an intense interest in light, color, space, optics and spatial geometry. In this exhibition, Saar’s most recent work includes pigmented acrylic panels, paintings, and Plexiglas sculptures. The sculptures, which are composed of basic geometric shapes, are grounded in geometric illusion theory. These chromatic constructions, the sophisticated paintings and mixed media pieces collectively inhabit the gallery space with a unique experience for the viewer where ideas about perception are questioned. Thru June 28, 2015.

*Diverted Destruction 8, Unraveled: The Fiber Edition at the Loft at Liz’s will feature work by members of California Fibers including SCWCA member Sandra Lauterbach. Lauterbach is a fiber and textile artist is known for her amazing art quilts. In this exhibition artists were asked to create works in which they reinterpreted salvaged fabrics. In doing so they address ideas about about recycling and the discarded. In Lauterbach’s work her skill and creative process are evident in the wonderful results of this challenge. The exhibit opens June 27, 2015. Opening reception is June 27; 7-10 p.m.

Out of Town

*Freyda Miller’s book Here Comes the BrideAnd Other Nightmares comes alive at the Women’s Museum of California located in Liberty Station in Pt. Loma/San Diego. The photographs from the book along with many of the assemblages, props, and garments used in Miller’s images are also included in the exhibit. The exhibition is carefully installed to create a narrative about the many aspects of marriage and womanhood. Miller’s work is filled with exquisitely composed photographs that evoke dreamlike images, some reminiscent of surrealist imagery, while others have qualities found in Victorian examples. Thru June 28, 2014.

Ongoing Museum Exhibitions

*The Afghan Carpet Project at the UCLA Hammer Museum, organized by curator Ali Subotnick, features six carpets designed by LA-based contemporary artists Lisa Anne Auerbach, Liz Craft, Meg Cranston, Francesca Gabbiani, Jennifer Guidi and Toba Khedoori and handmade by weavers in Afghanistan. The exhibition is the culmination of a project that began with a trip to Afghanistan to visit weavers in Kabul and Bamiyan in March 2014. The trip provided the artists with insight into the craft and the production process as well as the living and working conditions of the weavers. Following the trip, each artist came up with an original design for her carpet – some reflecting upon the experience and others derived out of the artists’ respective practices. The project was initiated by the not-for-profit organization AfghanMade along with carpet producer Christopher Farr, Inc. with the goal of collaborating with women weavers in Afghanistan. All profits from carpet sales (after fabrication costs are recovered) will benefit Arzu Studio Hope, an organization that established weaving studios in Afghanistan to provide fair wages, education and healthcare to Afghan women. The show will also include photo documentation of the trip shot by Auerbach. Thru Sept. 27, 2015. (This information is taken from the UCLA Hammer website).

Corita Kent

*The Pasadena Museum of California Art presents Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent. This is the first full-scale exhibition to survey the entire career of pioneering artist and designer Corita Kent (1918-1986). As a sister at Immaculate Heart College, she taught art and developed her pop-inspired imagery there. Sister Corita experimented in printmaking, producing a groundbreaking body of work that combines faith, activism and teaching with messages of acceptance and hope. Thru Nov. 11, 2015.

* The first comprehensive survey in America of the work of Elaine Sturtevant (1924-2014), Double Trouble is on view at MOCA.  Since 1964 Sturtevant has been literally copying the most iconic artworks of her generation. As a woman “repeating” the work of better-known male artists, she has passed almost unnoticed through the hierarchies of mid-century modernism and postmodernism. She began with versions of works by Pop artists Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. Sturtevant’s work explores issues of originality, authorship, and appropriation. Her work has been largely overlooked (likely because of her gender) and now there is an opportunity to take a close look and acknowledge her contributions. Thru July 27, 2015.