Los Angeles Art Association
proudly presents Fast Living, an all-media exploration
of self-indulgence juried by Elizabeth East, Director - LA Louver, opening at
Gallery 825 on February 26, 2011. In addition to Fast Living,
artists Susan Arena, Linda Kunik and Dan Monteavaro will be featured in solo
exhibitions.
Susan Arena's
Imaginary Homelands features recent paintings inspired by a line
from the 2004 movie Garden State: "Maybe that's all family really is. A group of
people that miss the same imaginary place."
Imaginary Homelands explores various conceptions of home
as a place that is dark, funny, and filled with desire, both spiritual and
sexual. Arena's paintings when taken together tie to a
greater narrative, with characters and places that turn up over and over again.
She uses found materials - bits of lace and pieces of quilt - that conjure home,
but are then transformed and co-mingled with painted figures.
Paint finds its way out of the canvas, out onto the frame itself, which
shows that the paintings, while about imaginary homelands are also very much
tactile objects that hang on people's
walls.
To slightly modify a quote by Jose
Bergamin, a Spanish writer, essayist, poet and playwright: "To be hungry and eat
is the perfection of sensuality rarely achieved." Linda Kunik's
provocative Ripe exhibition features close-up, abstracted C-prints
of tomatoes and other vegetables, at their most sensual, and at their most
sexual. The photos are not an end in themselves, but rather serve to unfold a
more complex knot of concerns about life, pleasure, sensuality and sexuality.
Vegetables have a sensuality all their own, but Kunik
skillfully exaggerates their sensual characteristics in this new body of
work.
Dan Monteavaro's
new body of work Pixel Tenement explores urban locations and items
as a process of documenting emotional landmarks. The
pixel-like paintings convey the sense that almost all memories and experiences
are becoming increasingly tied to the manner in which information is received
and its relevancy (i.e. television, computer, etc). The
images range from landscapes to iconic images. Along with the paintings,
Monteavaro will also feature partially painted and partially destroyed cast
concrete pieces along the perimeter of the gallery to accentuate the emotive
environment for the work.
Reception: 6-9pm, Saturday, February 26, 2011
Admission: Free
Location: Gallery 825:
825 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069
Show runs through
March 25, 2011.
For information call 310.652.8272 or e-mail
gallery825@laaa.org.
Top images by Susan Arena, Dan Monteavaro
and Linda
Kunik