Memento
Mori
New
works by Stella Im Hultberg
www.stellaimhultberg.com
| Opening Reception: |
Friday,
July 10th 7-11PM |
| On View: |
July
10th – Aug.
7th, 2009 |
(Los Angeles, CA) Thinkspace is proud to present, Memento Mori,
the second solo exhibition at our gallery from Brooklyn based artist
Stella Im Hultberg. The exhibition will feature a variety of new
works including oil on canvas, mixed media on paper and wood panel,
as well as a very special installation in our front entry area.
Opening in conjunction with Hultberg’s show is an exhibition
from Virginia based artist Catherine Brooks. This will be the artist’s
first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and will be showcased in our
project room. Alongside Brooks’ work we will also feature
new works from Los Angeles based artist Hannah Stouffer as part
of our ‘Fresh Faces’ series.
Opening Friday, July 10th in our main gallery:
'Memento Mori' by Stella Im Hultberg
Artist Statement: When I begin a painting, I don’t
start with a clear idea or message. The early stages are abstract
and vague and the work then develops organically as I paint. There’s
no specific concept but a blurry idea I try to clarify as each
layer of paint is built up.
An underlying unifying theme of identities
and duality seems to permeate much of my work. Identity as a human
being, the frail and the strong; identity as an individual; identity
in relation to others or the environment; and even dual, overlapped,
confused identities.
The process of creating a painting is what
intrigues me most, like finding pieces of a puzzle. The figures
(women) in my paintings are a vessel through which I can connect
with the world. The unseen moments, the unspoken words, the indescribable
emotions that permeate much of our lives… those are the
elements I try to capture and represent through the figures in
my work.
Artist Bio:
Stella Im Hultberg’s paintings are conceived in varying combinations of
ink, watercolor, and oils on paper, wood and canvas. Her portraits of women are
rendered in easy, flowing lines with soft hues that transcend the typical critiques
of feminine beauty, inherent in today’s self conscious society.
Hultberg
originally studied Industrial Design at CSU, which naturally segued into work
as a toy designer early on in her career. Work in the design industry serendipitously
led to her building on her natural talents as an artist and a career as a self-taught
painter soon followed. Having grown up in Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, she has
a diverse blend of cultural influences to pull from.
Hultberg has shown her work
with such prestigious galleries at Lineage Gallery (now Joshua Liner Gallery),
Roq La Rue, Gallery 1988, Limited Addiction, and Corey Helford. With solo shows
ahead at Copro Gallery and Josh Liner Gallery in the coming year, things will
only continue to bloom for this young artist.
Artist website: http://www.stellaimhultberg.com/
Artist blog: http://stellaimhultberg.blogspot.com/
Sneak Peek of 'Memento Mori':
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157618025058584/ .
Also
opening on Friday, July 10th in our project room:
‘The Seeded Wind and Silent Motion; an Oeuvre of
Beetled Beauty’ by Catherine Brooks
Catherine Brooks has been working tirelessly to expand her artist "vocabulary".
Through her successes and failures, Brooks feels like she has finally learned
what is important to her art, and what it is to explore during the creative process.
Brooks has developed her own personal mythology, based around the legends and
tales passed down and weathered through oral tradition and the rise and fall
of empires. They reflect her ideas on love, memory, and the inexplicable human
talent for personifying assigning responsibility to the cycles of life, and its
manifestations. It was, for the artist, a beginning, a birth. It is a collection
of pearls and remnants, an allusive menagerie of natural diplomacy, sensual symbiosis,
and hints of great tales and legends to come.
Brooks has a BFA in Fine Arts from
the Pratt Institute of Art and Design in Brooklyn, NY and completed a residency
at Campus Hanoi in Vietnam. She has shown regularly in galleries over the past
two years. Highlights of her resume include a solo in NYC at The Proposition
Gallery in 2007 and taking part in last year’s SCOPE London.
Artist Blog: http://thearborgeistproject.tumblr.com
Sneak Peek at 'The Seeded Wind and Silent Motion’:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157617936915467/
PLUS
on our 'Fresh Faces' wall this July:
‘Twilight & Fate' from Hannah Stouffer
Los Angeles-based illustrator Hannah Stouffer finds a great deal of comfort
in imagery- it's an admiration that is often times overwhelming. With an infatuation
for icons and images that reflect and categorize historical eras, genres and
subcultures, her work is an opulent, elegant and beautifully intricate mixture
of illustration and design. Her densely-packed compositions consciously recall
classical elements from our past and combine them with our modern attractions,
creating cohesive yet opposing arrays of imagery and embellishment. She focuses
on the contrasts between periods in time, subcultures and social trends- and
merges them together with a high regard for traditional decoration.
Hannah
has been an exhibiting artist for over five years now and has shown with the
likes of White Walls, 111 Minna, Compound Gallery, Giant Robot, Nucleus Gallery,
DDR Projects, Gallery 1988, Together Gallery, BLVD Gallery, Arspace Gallery,
Plastic Chapel, National Product, Ghetto Gloss, Receiver Gallery, Nest, Show
Cave, Parlor Gallery, Pulp Gallery, Lower Hater, Hotel Des Art, Primary Space,
Plush Gallery, Aspen Art Museum, Domy Gallery, Grey Area Gallery, Space Gallery,
Vener Gallery, Bliss Gallery, Vitale Gallery, Canvas Gallery, and CC Rider.
The heart of darkness exists within the light. Black Dawn, Dawn After Dawn
Tepid Neon, Frozen Clarity. This contrast and the ever present existence of
the two are constant. Macabre Elegance. Darkness Falls Forever... Since The
Beginning.
Artist website: http://www.grandarray.com
Artist blog: http://www.grandarray.blogspot.com
Sneak Peek at ‘Twilight & Fate’:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157617936922329/
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