What could be better than a drive-up or walk-by art exhibition of lustrous abstract neon? Linda Sue Price offers a lush, vibrant, and yes, lit-up experience in her new show, Safe in the Light, opening today, Saturday March 6th, at Loiter Galleries in Long Beach.
The gallery notes that after months of storefront closures and darkness due to the pandemic, gallerists felt it was “now time” to make the city’s 4th Street promenade shine with this pop-up exhibition located at The Streets shopping center.
Price’s new exhibition opens at 6:30 p.m. tonight, with an outdoor look at the art; it will be on display and clearly visible from the windows of the gallery until April 17th.
The exhibition marks a grand reopening of the galleries’ space. Price was chosen for the reopening because, “her work’s dual focus on light and positivity felt right for the moment,” the gallery states. It’s neon nature also lends itself to outside viewing by passersby, making it perfectly COVID-19 safe, as well as uplifting.
Price says “The work in this show trends toward bright light because it is exhibiting in daylight,” she notes, when describing what makes this particular body of work different from others of her highly textural, sinuously-shaped neon art.
“I was invited to this show because the curators wanted to focus on light and positivity. Two pieces Rose, and Jesse, honor people who encouraged me to be me and also celebrated the energy of abstract art,” she explains.
Energy is certainly a quality that her work is infused with. It is the transcendent quality of her medium itself, her choice of color, her use of curves and shadows. The supple quality of her bending evokes movement and fluidity, providing the viewer with a synthesis of light, color, and captured motion. Her ability to exude light as a kind of life-force permeates the consciousness, inspiring an inward energy and awakening in the viewer.
Echoing the passion and connectivity of all great abstract art, Price paints with her tubing in intense and visceral strokes.
Like many artists during pandemic times, she relates that the pandemic itself has of course influenced her work and impacted her personally. “I changed my focus from art making to gardening. While I continued to practice my bending skills, my creativity was channeled into figuring out how to successfully grow healthy vegetable plants. I recently grew my first winter garden. The journey continues. I am now using seeds to grow some of my plants rather than purchase them from a nursery.”
Unsurprisingly, her interest in gardening has also influenced the literal and figurative growth of her artwork. “My current project is to create invented herbs that will encourage the appreciation of women with opinions, and the sipping of two other invented herbs that will encourage support democracy…and the list goes on.”
In short, her neon continues to bloom and grow, just like her garden. And viewers can experience it live in Long Beach, starting tonight.
Loiter Galleries is located at 180 E. 4th Street windows in Long Beach; opening outdoors, live Saturday March 6th and on Instagram Live at Loiter Galleries.
- Genie Davis; images courtesy of the artist