Gloriane Harris Colors Her – and Our – World

Working in primarily vibrant hues, Gloriane Harris has created a large repertoire over the last 50 years, working in both oil and watercolor. She’s created dizzying, vivid geometric abstracts, lush nature abstracts, and more figurative elements within the context of nature throughout the years, from feline to fossil.

No matter what the specific work, Harris dazzles with her palette, her form, and her powerful, dream-like vision. An exhibition of her work is now at BG Gallery in Santa Monica presented through the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art (VICA). 50 Years of Oil & Water – Gloriane Harris – 1969-2020 originally opened at ViCA in DTLA in 2020 but closed due to COVID-19.

Whether she is depicting a volcano, as above in “Edge of Kilauea” (1994), a delicate lavender fossil, or the sheen of smooth sea water, she creates a mesmeric pull with color and motion-filled, compelling images. Her geometric abstracts are hard-edged, sharp and witty; her softer, more flowing images have the texture of silk garments, the shape of petals, waves, hazy landscapes, and summer dawns.

Harris is a quintessentially California artist, both in terms of subjects and her approach. Unlike other artists who began their work in the late 60s and early 1970s, Harris took no part in an exodus to New York, choosing to paint under the radar in West Los Angeles. Working long-term in a SoCal-infused palette, she shaped light-filled, layered color-intense work that ranges in from neon and shades hot as an LA winter sunset to those as cool as a misty morning rainbow over Catalina.

Born in 1947 in Santa Monica, Harris is highly influenced by the season, the light, and the environment around her, saying “the light of the ocean and the beach in Southern California is like nothing anywhere else,” and terming that light the greatest influence on her painting.

Hers is the dazzle of sunlight on sea water, a sunrise barely rimming over the Santa Monica Mountains, an afternoon awash in the golden fire of a summer garden, the blue, golden-hour shadows of a summer dusk. Whether working in highly specific blocks, lines and circles as precise as targets, or creating her flowing abstracts, she shapes the life-force and raw beauty of her west coast home and inspiration. Neither tropical nor desert dry, her art longs for and celebrates water and light.

“Early Season Island” is blue and green and all angular perspective, like paradise viewed from sea, at a horizon-defying distance (2019); the work is somewhat of a fusion between her more impressionistic abstracts and the sharply focused patterned work in the artists’ career.

“Next Eclipse of Green” (1974), is cat’s eye and off-center target in extreme close-up; “Mutchka” (1969) is figurative and bold, a distinctive cat face textured behind a screen or grid (below).

Below, “Earthquake” (1974) is a play on measurement of seismic activity, depicting a circular, moving vibration measured in green, gold, pink and lavender.

The motion of lavenders and reds in “Dusk Dusk” (1974), below, is an abstract of soft-focus lines that contains elements of both harder-edged work and her watercolor abstracts of more recent years. It is both reflection of twilight on water, sky, and fading light on land.

Even in her less-frequent use of black and white, the viewer senses the resonance of Harris’ color-filled images.

Harris studied at Otis Art Institute, and worked with Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman on the first artists’ worldwide satellite broadcast at Documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany in 1977. Her work has shown at a wide range of museums and galleries in the U.S. and abroad, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to the Palais de Beaux Arts in Belgium, and the Fahle Gallery in Estonia.

While Harris continues to paint daily, and taught at schools such as Otis Art Institute, El Camino College, and Cerritos College, she withdrew from the “art scene” in the late 80s, remerging now with ViCA, in a swirl of rich work, jeweled in glowing colors and shimmering with light. Exemplifying and amplifying the natural world has always been what Harris revels in; through her body of work, viewers join the celebration, California-style.

Genie Davis; photos provided by ViCA

Painted Architecture: Eastern European Art Builds a Fresh Scene in Los Angeles

 

PAInstallview2

At the Venice Institute for Contemporary Art gallery in San Pedro’s The Loft through October 31st, Painted Architecture brings an exciting exhibtion first shown earlier this year in Tallinn, Estonia to LA.

The work originated with Estonian and Latvian artists and friends Aleksejs Naumovs and Vilen Künnapu bringing together a vibrant collection combining Estonian art and Lavian architectural paintings. The result, curated by Meelis Tammemagi,  features artists including Andris Vitolins, August Kunnapu, Martin (QBA) Kaares, Liisa Kruusamagi, and Meriliss (Meru) Rinne. In the U.S., co-curators include Juri Koll, Daisy Inslermann and Anna Matskevitš.

Along with their geography, the seven artists’ work also shares an intensity and fluidity, despite many different visions.

VKWelcometoLemuriaII

Multi-colored and vividly hued, “Welcome to Lemurial” from Vilen Künnapu exemplifies the spirit of the exhibition. Viewers see symbols and brilliant colors in a cheerful architectural landscape that includes vivid green trees, a bright red monument structure, and above the rich blue of what appears to be sky, what appears to be a sea of red, with a tiny boat afloat on a single wave line. The town appears to be old, smaller, perhaps a resort town or historic district. Another work features a more traditional take on a similar view, in which the blue is sea not sky and the red an island or mountain in the distance; here a yellow boat sails along the sea with foamy white caps. There is an innocence and sweetness to these works.

MKMomaYard

In a strong contrast, cool blues and greens and browns of Martin (QBA) Kaares’ “MOMA Yard” is all modern. This is an urban city, with high-rise buildings on the skyline, a distinct geometric structure, and a central image of seemingly winter-bare city park. Silhouetted dark blue figures rove the area, busy and on the move. Other work by the artist exhibit a similar cool hue, and a view of modern city life. Elliptical and quiet, these works offer a powerful look at urban life and a sense of removal from the personal.

ANBuranoII

Aleksejs Naumovs’ “Buranoll” returns the viewer to a more bucolic environment; a village-like town with meandering streets, in which small black and brown cats explore a courtyard. Once again, the buildings are brightly colored; the piece builds curiosity and impact by positioning its images slightly aslant, as if the perspective came from above. Other images of Naumovs give us different wider perspectives of the same courtyard; in one a shadowy human silhouette is joined by two of the cats.

Meru

In Meriliss (Meru) Rinne’s work, the perspective is more decidedly askew: thick, vivid abstract shapes create a layered jungle of forms that resemble both buildings and flowers, rockets and monuments. Diminutive in size, these works have a glowing depth that changes the meaning of the word “landscape” or “architecture.” In one work, an orange sun floats just over the top of buildings; in another, we see figures beneath a yellow orb in a dark sky. A dramatic energy suffuses each of the small but powerful images.

PAInstallview5

With “The Inner World of the Departing Man,” August Kunnapu gives us a darkening blue sky and purple, black, and grey factory buildings. The man, clad in green jacket and lavender shirt is walking towards us, again, the perspective is unique, angled, highly geometric. The landscape requires us to study it more than the man himself, as if it represented the man’s inner world, and perhaps it does.

dyptic

Works by Andris Vitolins and Liisa Kruusmagi display equal power and grace. Kruusmagi wavers between impressionism and realism with encompassing city views that draw viewers into a unique world; her Dyptic, above, an evocative work that reveals a structure on the edge of a body of water. The division between the two separate panels creates a wonderful sense of nature vs. the work of man, and/or inclusive of it. Vitolins, like Kunnapu, relies  on a more rigorous, structural approach, his paintings both an exciting blueprint for architecture and a realization.

PAInstallview4

The exhibition will host a closing reception on Sunday, October 27th from 2-5 p.m. The gallery is located on the top floor of The Loft, 401 Mesa Street in San Pedro.

PAInstallview3

PAInstallview1

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by ViCA

Edge to Edge Series Connects U.S. and Estonian Artists at ViCA

IMG_5560
Above,Curator/Artist Juri Koll points out the political elements of work by Estonian artist Leohnard Lapin
The Venice Institute of Contemporary Art’s Edge to Edge, a series of art exhibitions, has been holding forth at ViCA’s San Pedro location since May. Closing this weekend, the group exhibition features a vibrant collection from both U.S. and Estonian artists. The interplay between the two groups of artists creates a tightly curated show featuring a diverse body of work, one that depicts the culture of and iconic images from both countries.
IMG_5556
Above, the opening night crowd gathers around a sculpture by Pablo Llana (Mexico) 
According to curator Juri Koll, whose own Estonian roots played a part in the show’s strong interdisciplanary exchange of art and ideas, “The work emphasizes a prescient, mutual place in time and mind, a desire to push boundaries at every edge… An exhibition of different artworks from the very opposite ends of the western world create a coherent voice and experience in time and space, full of contrast, tension, and unanimity.”
AllikEdgetoEdgeweb
Above, from Estonian artist Peeter Allik.

Participating artists include, from Estonia: Toomas Kuusing, Anonymous Boh, Taje Tross, Pusa, Tönis Laanemaa, Leonhard Lapin, Terttu Uibopuu, Raul Meel, Peeter Allik, Hillar Tatar, George Koll and Serge Koll. From the U.S.: Bradford J. Salamon, Sonja Schenk, Doug Edge, Gloriane Harris, John Hancock, Sulamit Elizondo, Robbie Conal, Lilli Muller, Mb Boissonnault, Juri Koll, Cosimo Cavallaro, Lil’ Mikey Coleman, Lilli Muller, Robert Nelson, William Turtle, Catherine Ruane, and Pablo Llana.

65166874_2333490223400625_8468970115168206848_n

Above, the graceful trees of Catherine Ruane.

From the colorful abstract seascapes of Harris to Conal’s highly political art, Ruane’s lush graphite images of trees so real you could touch them, to Schenk’s exciting cut-out-based painting studies, and Salamon’s viscerally real all-American images, the exhibition offers vibrant artists that contrast and compare in a pitch-perfect visual dialog with their Estonian counterparts’ work.

Artists participated in an art talk last weekend that engaged both local artists live, and those from Estonia via video.

IMG_6080

Above, Signe Krikmann, Consul of the Consulate General of Estonia in New York, studies the artwork.

The exhibition is not only fascinating artistically, but as a step toward global cultural inclusion. The plan for the exhibition is that the ViCA gallery exhibition is just the start. Next, it will travel to Estonia in a cultural exchange to promote freedom of speech, activism, and peace as a new way to see and express each culture. A published catalog will follow the exhibition.

JurionFakeShaketoJaak

Above, Koll points out elements of his latest work to Jaak Treiman, Honorary Consul of Estonia in Los Angeles, and artist Robert Nelson, whose exciting low brow pop realism work is included in the exhibition. 

Several artworks in the show date from the Soviet era, and serve as a commentary on the on-going struggle for independence and freedom of expressiong, Koll notes – and that commentary is prescient both in Estonia, as it celebrates its 100th anniversary of independence, but in the U.S. as well. Estonia and other Baltic states emerged as free, democratice countries 1918 through 1919. 

LeohnardLapin1

Above, work from Estonian artist Leonhard Lapin, whose ideas about machines’  providing pleasure as well as production are the basis of his Machine, Man Machine, Woman Machine series, an example of which is above. Lapin’s interest in the subject was an outgrowth of his translation of the revolutionary book The Non-Objective World into the Estonian language.

After the exhibition closes in Los Angeles on June 29, Edge to Edge will be presented with works from additional artists as well as several new works from those already participating from North America in July at the Tartu Art House within the framework of the Tartu Graphic Festival (July 22 – August 18) and at the Pärnu IN Graphics Festival in Pärnu City Gallery opening on August 10, and the Fahle Gallery in Tallinn from July 27 through August 30th. These locations are all within Estonia.

BradfordtoTajeEtoE

From left: “Midnight Snack” by Bradford Salamon; collaborations by Anonymous Boh (Estonia) and John Hancock (US), “Dude Descending the Staircase” by Bradford J. Salamon, and “Performance Formula I” by Taje Tross.

It doesn’t get much more iconic-Americana than the Dude or a giant burger. Salamon, as always, kills it with his intensely rewarding realist style.

For a look at this seminal exhibition closer to home, closing is Saturday the 29th at ViCA, located at 401 S. Mesa Street, San Pedro, CA 90731

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by Juri Koll

What a Place: Art in Place at the Newberry Lofts Long Beach

Multi pics
A dazzling array of artists are hanging out at the Newberry Lofts in Long Beach. Or rather, hanging at.  A stellar, museum quality show presented by
ViCA in association with Engels & Volkers – representing the Newberry Lofts Long Beach, Art in Place offers over 80 works by 55 artists. Curated by Juri Koll in 7000-square-feet of exhibition space, the wide variety of Southern California-based contemporary artists represented is really quite extraordinary.
oceans mine
Using individual lofts on two separate floors as galleries,  the artwork both compliments and creates an intimate setting. Artists are well-paired in the lofts,  in a thoughtful merging of styles, colors, and contrasts. Open by appointment through the end of January, the exhibition will have a closing open to the public on January 27th, and will be issuing a catalog for this extensive show with signed copies available at the closing.

Presenting artists include: John Baldessari, Sandy Bleifer, MB Boissonault, Jodi Bonassi, Bob Branaman, Cosimo Cavallaro, John Eden, Sam Francis, Gloriane Harris, Joel King, Barbara Kolo, KuBO, Maria Larsson, Lawrie Margrave, Stefanie Nafe, Hung Viet Nguyen, Terry O’Shea, Max Presneill, Osceola Refetoff, Phil Santos, Sonja Schenk, Theodore Svenningsen, Reginald Van Langenhove, J. Renee Tanner, Edmund Teske, Ron Therrio, Jae Hwa Yoo, Ginny Barrett, Chenhung Chen, David Clark, Denise DeGrazia, Jeanne Dunn, Matt Ehrmann, Lewis Francis, Stephanie Han, Courtney Heather, Elena Kulikova, Cody Lusby, Emily Maddigan, Kim Marra, Bruce McAllister, Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass, Lena Moross, Cat Phillips, Linda Sue Price, Caryl St. Ama, Mark Rebennack, Georgina Reskala, Frederika Roeder, John Rosewall, Karrie Ross, Christine Sawicky, Linda Stelling, Katie Stubblefield, Stephanie Sydney, Scott Trimble, and Tracey Weiss.
i forget the lace one
cat chiu 2
Above, the work of Cat Chiu Phillips – the medium here is unspooled video tape.
 
According to Koll, who often curates in alternative spaces as well as museums and galleries, artist and former public art project manager Renee Tanner spoke with Koll during a recent exhibition he co-curated at Muzeumm, Gimme 5. Tanner asked if Koll would like to show in Long Beach, and the extensive project was born.
kolo?
Above, the work of Barbara Kolo 
 
“I said depending on the circumstances, of course I would,” Koll reports. “She brought me down, introduced me to the folks at Engel & Volker who run Newberry Lofts, and we decided to partner up. Renee referred new artists to me, handled parts of the organization, and did a great job helping with the show. Her work is featured prominently in the show.” Below, Tanner presents a meditative installation “Show of Hands,” shaped from canvas, gloves, and pins, in colors as soft as a spring sky.
renee
Seeking to avoid predicability in shaping the exhibition, Koll says “I believe people deserve something new every time, something they haven’t seen before. In short, a real show. A real exhibition. I work very hard to make that happen. I believe in these artists and what they represent. I do a lot of research. All too often in the art or entertainment world things remain hidden in artists’ studios, never to see light of day. I love discovering them.For example, Gloriane Harris’s monumental quadriptych was painted in the early 1980s and has only been seen once in public in the mid-90s…so I got her to agree to show them. In the same room, the work by Terry O’Shea has never been seen since it was made by the artist in the early 70s.”
scott, therrio, hung
“The large wooden sculpture by Ron Therrio was commissioned especially for this exhibition. He worked night and day for months to make it happen, and it’s a show-stopper.”
therrio
therio more
Indeed, this room is gorgeous. Therrio’s plywood work, “Title Unknown,” is both alien and intensely familiar, smooth and supple, a work in which one feels immediately connected to the being he’s created, something from another dimension that the viewer feels privileged to enter.” Therrio’s work is super solid with a strong dose of sly humor,” Koll says.
three oceans
Harris’ lush, large scale oil paintings are born of the sea and buoyed by light, her “Vermillion Morning,” “Breaking Bright,” “Late Afternoon Break,” and “Azure Early Evening,” are indeed magnificent. “She uses classical glazing technique, along with a nod to Monet’s ‘Haystacks’ in their use of differing light and times of day, and a unique Southern California aesthetic. She’s always been near water, and it shows,” Koll notes.
juri
“I started with an overall concept of picking only the best works I could find, and that they had to have some connection to something else I’d selected. I started with the title, Art in Place because it seem general enough. Then, work I was attracted to often had a sense of place built in. That’s a major and unique trait of work made here in Southern California, I believe,” Koll says. Above, Koll stands next to a work by Jae Hwa Yoo.
john eden de feo tribute
terry o shea?
Eden’s large scale dimensional works here are an homage to Jay DeFeo; O’Shea’s rich resin “The Milky Way” and “Tar Pit Triangle” are deep and mysterious.
presneill mine
Gallery301AinPMorningAfter3
Koll describes hanging Max Presneill’s vibrant abstract “Redact 091” and KuBO’s intense pieces which “dance around the surreal” with his “WH81” and “WH82,” both artists’ works shown above, across from each other in a juxtaposition of color and shapes.
sonja 2
Some of Koll’s favorite pieces, along with those mentioned above are works by Sonja Schenk, whose floor sculpture/painting is a wonderful reflection back to her wall-mounted oil painting that suspends a mountainous rock formation in the sky.  Both pieces, “Me Falta” and “Two Skies” are riveting and original looks at the natural landscape.
Svennigsen
Theodore Svenningsen is another stand-out. “These pre-Google Earth/internet map paintings – all over the show – are prescient, painterly, magnificent, and have never been seen in a gallery setting – they come direct from his studio where he painted them in the early 80s.”  Acrylic on canvas, Svenningsen’s evocative, almost ethereal works map the human spirit as much as the locales he depicts, such as “The Road to Mandalay.” Maria Larsson with lustrous archival pigment prints “Levitate I, II, III, IV, V;”  Reginald Van Langenhoven, and Jae Hwa Yoo, are all artists whose work Koll feels passionately about. Of course, there are many more wonderful pieces here as well.
Hung
hung 3
Above, in a collection of multiple works from his astonishing “Sacred Landscapes” series, above, Hung Viet Nguyen’s water, earth, and sky, undulate both in texture and subject, transfixing viewers with their beauty and sense of harmony.

i dont know 2

Caryl St. Ama’s “Combined Forces,” created in encaustic monoprint and silkscreen on wood panel is a mystical, involving work.

ross

Karrie Ross’ abstract work, “Reaching,” glows both from her use of material – acrylic, metal leaf on panel, and from a sense of something arising within.

chen

Chenhung Chen’s “Aerial #2” and #3 are delicate, web-like abstracts that startle with bursts of green and blue color.

rosswell

Several dark-toned visceral pieces by John Rosewell, “Drive” and “Push,” above, are also standouts. 

lauren mendelsohn

Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass’ “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” is an electrically striking piece as well.

trimble

And the moody, figurative abstract of Scott Trimble’s “Worry Not, for Perfection is Merely A Notion that Does Not Exist” is both haunting and delicate. 

osceola

Photographic artist Osceola Refetoff offers two pieces that capture a fresh view of the world beyond SoCal, the archival pigment prints “Julie & Mita – Arena Blanca Bioko, Equatorial Guinea” and “Wildebeasts Running With Tree – Masai Mara National Park, Kenya.” The former work is vivid with color, as alive as the two women it depicts, the latter a moodier long shot of fragile-looking wildlife.

barbara kolo?

ross and kolo

Works by Barbara Kolo are spread throughout the exhibition. The artist’s amazingly detailed impressionistic abstracts are truly special, reminiscent at times of Seraut; colors seeming to glow.

santos

Phil Santos exhibits two incredibly lovely tributes to DTLA architecture, “Eastern Building” and “Million Dollar Theater.” Acrylic on panel, these are memorably vibrant, richly detailed realistic works.

phil santos 2

At the November 4th opening, Santos live-painted.

trace 2

Tracey Weiss has created two mixed media installations, one hangs in the courtyard of the 4th floor of the exhibition, the hanging sculpture “Polyethylene Sepentes” crafted from PET plastic bottles and monofilament; and the walk-in-closet sized “Carousel,” a sculptural installation that uses 35mm slides, slide carousels and boxes, rendering even the unseen images magical.

linda sue price

And don’t overlook the lush work of Mb Boissonault with her oil work, “The Hoax,” or the somehow quintessentially Californian lustrous modern neon of Linda Sue Price’s glowing beaded orange “Consistency is Not a Virtue.”

Jeanne dunn

Jeanne Dunn’s oil on canvas, “Entwined II,” depicts the miraculousness of nature in a way that only Dunn can, with a grace and purpose that immortalizes the fragility of that world. 

anima mine

Emily Madigan’s marvelous, mythic sculptures – three in this show, including the life-size figure “Anima,” above, encompasses materials such as foam, antlers, sequins, pins, and beads creating blinged, surreal creatures.jodi mine

Jodi Bonassi’s work often seems the visual equivalent of “magical realism” in fiction, and here in an untitled work, offers more of her deeply, wonderfully detailed visionary takes on humanity.

lena mine best

Lena Moross, working in watercolor and ink, makes a still life of a soft blue sofa into something utterly alive in “Couch #11.”

AinPOpeningGal301a

 

Along with other works, Koll has displayed some classics from his own private collection, including pieces by Sam Francis, Bob Branaman, photographer Lawrie Margrave, John Baldessari, and one of Koll’s mentors, Edmund Teske, whose works were acquired in the mid-70s.

Put the January 27th closing on your calendars, and prepare to fete an outstanding collection of artworks.

Ginny barrett

Above, sculpture by Ginny Barrett
Genie Davis; photos Genie Davis, additional exhibition opening photos provided by VICA.