Artful Amphora

A Blog by Karen Schifman

You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Women Around Town, February 2016

Women Around Town, February 2016

By

IN THE GALLERIES:
 *SPOTLIGHT: Nurit Avesar

SCWCA member Nurit Avesar will be exhibiting a new series of work at the  Neurtra Institute Museum of Silver Lake. The show, “Elemental Energies” is curated by Dulce Stein. Avesar was born in Israel and came to the U.S. in the 1970s. She began her career as a figurative artist, focusing on illustration and graphic design professionally. After taking a break for motherhood, she returned to complete her college education and obtained her MA at Cal State University, Northridge. She continued in the figurative medium, focusing on portraiture and then gradually began to incorporate various media in to her paintings leaning more and more toward abstraction.

Nurit Avesar
Today, one finds Avesar in her studio at Studio Channel Islands in Camarillo where she has settled into an nourishing and supportive environment with fellow artists. In “Elemental Energies” the artist has clearly broken away from figuration and works with a myriad of materials. She sands, tears, paints, and manipulates the materials into stunning painterly and conceptual compositions. This manipulation and sometimes even the destruction of the imagery as part of the creation process, “invokes the reexamination of cultural legacies and historical events and their weight on the present”. Opens 2/12/16 and runs thru 3/12/16. Artist Talk with Shana Nys Dambrot on Sunday, 3/6/16 from 2 to 4 pm.
“BIG BOX/little box” is a solo exhibition of work by Dwora Fried at Gallery 825. See my blog for more about the artist and her work. Thru 2/19/16.

 

Mei Xian Qiu’s video, “I Love You” is on view at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. Thru 2/20/16.

Merry Karnowsky Gallery on La Brea is exhibiting mesmerizing photographs by Vivian Maier from the Maloof Collection. Thru 2/26/16.

“Pizza, Bagpipe, Carburetor” is an exhibition of new work by Meg Cranston at Meliksetian/Briggs Gallery on Fairfax. Read a brief review in Art LTD article. Thru 3/5/16.

Ruth Bachofner Gallery is showing “Scholar Books” by Jean Edelstein (below left) and “Leaf in the Light” by her daughter, Barbara Edelstein (below right). Over the past three decades, Jean Edelstein has worked with dancers on stage, translating the movement in real time to painted lines and color. She draws on her performative experience while working in Chinese Scholar accordion books. This series is inspired by the Chinese tradition of painted handscrolls. Edelstein draws with quick, expressive gestures to convey the immediacy of performative energy. Barbara Edelstein brings together photographs, ink drawings and silicone rubber leaf sculptures to create these ethereal images on paper. The work as a whole expresses the importance of integrating nature into our everyday lives in order to preserve it. “This series,” Barbara states, “is a conversation between my inner reflections on Nature and the details of Nature that we rarely perceive . . . Created with different artistic media, these artworks form a poetic dialog between themselves for the viewer to contemplate. Thru 2/27/16.
                                                      
Anat Egbi Gallery continues their commitment to exhibit work by women artists for a year, and presents “Double Blind” by Margo Wolociec (image right). She appropriates digital images and doubles them. They are then abstracted by the process of dye sublimation transfer onto polymer threads and then woven together on a handloom. The process allows for a combination of chance and intention resulting in complex compositions. Thru 3/12/16.
“Unspooled” is an exhibition at the Annenberg Beach Community Center Gallery curated by Stacey Ravel Abarbanel. The exhibition features work by Lynne Brodhead Clark, Jenny Hart and Maria Piñeres. These three contemporary artists employ yarn and thread in innovative ways. Thru 4/17/16.
IN THE MUSEUMS:
In the coming months, the photographic work of Los Angeles-based contemporary artistCatherine Opie will seemingly be everywhere in Los Angeles. “Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road” at MOCA (PDC) features new and recent work. These photographs were taken over the course of six months at the Bel-Air residence of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor. The exhibition’s photographs are drawn from two series: Closets and Jewels and 700 Nimes Road.
At the UCLA Hammer Museum, “Catherine Opie: Portraits” will feature 12 portraits of visual artists, fashion designers and writers taken by Opie. This body of work engages directly with old master portraiture.  Thru 5/22/16.
Catherine Opie’s “O Portfolio” (image right) will be on exhibit at LACMA. This project was a response to Robert Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio. The photographs depict sadomasochistic scenarios derived from her participation in San Francisco’s bondage community. Despite their sexually explicit sources, Opie declares their content as that of intimacy. Runs from 2/13/16 thru 9/5/16.

 

The Craft and Folk Art Museum presents a solo exhibition of recent work by Los Angeles based Keiko Fukazawa (image left). This work was created during her residencies in collaboration with local artisans in Jingdezhen, China. The results are quite remarkable and demonstrate the myriad of materials available to ceramic artists in Jingdezhen. These ceramics are not only exquisite, they also provide commentary on consumerism in China and beyond. Thru 5/8/16.


.
An important exhibition of the work of renowned California artist Helen Lundeberg (1908-1999) will soon be presented at The Laguna Art Museum (image right). This is a systematic survey of her paintings with over 50 examples including her Post-Surrealist paintings of the 1930s. Runs 2/21/16 thru 5/30/16.
“Manzanar: The Wartime Photographs of Ansel Adams,” which also features photographs by Dorothea Lange, continues at the Skirball Cultural Center. Complimenting this outstanding exhibit is “Citizen 13660: The Art of Miné Okubo.” Thru 2/21/16.
“Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination” continues at LACMA. Thru 2/21/16.
Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity” continues at LACMA.” The sculptures are installed throughout the LACMA campus. Thru 5/22/16.
“Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows” continues at the Getty Center. Thru 2/21/16.
The Long Beach Museum of Art  is currently featuring exhibitions by Lori LaMont and Barbara Strasen. Thru 2/21/16. Original collage work is central in “Who Is She?-Terry Braunstein,” an artist who has previously exhibited these examples in photographic reproductions. Thru 2/14/16.

Comments

  2. Patricia Terrell- O'Neal says

    Hello Karen,

    I can’t help but envy you seeing so much art of quality.
    Your writing helps those of us who are absent share in your adventure.
    I can hear your voice and the art that inspires you.
    Women artist are in need, we are grateful for your time and vision.
    ps
    away for a couple of months. Miss seeing you.
    Patricia