CASPER BRINDLE - LIGHT | GLYPHS
Extended thru December 5, 2021
Casper Brindle will be at the gallery this Saturday, November 20th at 3PM to sign catalogs followed by a special musical performance by YUKI SHIBAMOTO at 4 PM
Signed Catalogs will be available for $35.
READ ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
AUTRE MAGAZINE
THE ARGONAUT
Joan Agajanian Quinn and her late husband Jack represent a key moment in the history of contemporary art, as Los Angeles came to symbolize an innovative and prolific brand of creative freedom. Few individuals have left such an indelible mark on the artistic landscape of Southern California more than Joan and Jack Quinn. Joan found herself both muse and promoter of several Southern California artists, while Jack used his skills as a prominent and influential attorney to help an array of emerging artists and their dealers navigate the worlds of law and business.
Known for her charisma, intelligence and incomparable flamboyance, Joan Agajanian Quinn has served as inspiration for artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Zandra Rhodes, Larry Bell, Frank Gehry, Ed Moses, Helmut Newton, Billy Al Bengston, Antonio Lopez and many others. As artists sought to record her image across a variety of media, Joan Quinn found herself with one of the world’s largest and significant collections of contemporary portraiture — a poignant representation of friendship, appreciation, and respect.
This exhibition will highlight the couple’s collection primarily amassed from the 1970s to 1990s. Much of the work was collected directly from the artists and has never changed hands or been shown publicly. Works in the exhibition will explore various themes such as Ferus Group “Cool School,” Gagosian, female artists, Finish Fetish, Documentary, Light and Space/Minimalism, Chicano Art, Pop Art, nature vs. urban landscape, and international artists and influences.
We are pleased to have two gallery artists Andy Moses and Mark Steven Greenfield included in this exhibition at USC Fisher Museum of Art. To read the article about the exhibition please click on the link below.
Thank you to EMS for this short exhibition video. To view the exhibition catalog clink the link below.
Photograph courtesy Brent Broza Photography
Casper Brindle is convinced that he’s putting out some of his best work yet in his latest exhibition at William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica.
The artist, who began painting in the 1980s and is a disciple of the Light and Space art movement in Los Angeles, has woven a Southern California influence through all his work, whether the hot rod and surf culture found in his earlier work or the pure light in his latest exhibition.
“I think the light in LA is different than anywhere else in the world,” Brindle said. “This will be my best show yet. I’m really proud of this show.”
The show is called “Light | Glyphs” and will be on display through November 5. The series contains 25 pieces of which 15 will be shown at William Turner Gallery.
“Light is a huge part of my work in general and especially this body of work,” Brindle said. “I would say it is as important as the materials that I use, even more so. These works came to fruition just playing with light and seeing what happens with other materials. I started with light itself and manipulated the materials to do different things and bring different energies.”
Brindle, who was born in Toronto, moved to LA when he was 6 years old in the mid-1970s and he has lived there ever since. He was an apprentice to the Light and Space pioneer Eric Orr. He has exhibited on a regular basis at William Turner Gallery for more than 10 years and this is his 7th solo exhibition with the gallery.
A surfer, Brindle is constantly observing the play of light on water and how it expresses itself with color. Many of the works were done during the COVID lockdowns, something that Brindle said worked out to be a great thing for a lot of artists.
“Everything went on the backburner,” Brindle said. “You didn’t have to follow deadlines. You were kind of like, now it is time to really play with ideas and research and do the things that you can’t do when you have commitments and things like that.”
To create the works in this exhibit, Brindle used automotive paints, pigmented acrylic and metal leaf. The final works are 3 feet by 3 feet by 4 inches. He used translucent sculptural boxes which he air painted with diffused colors through the frosted surfaces.
The light in the colored background reflects in a quietly dramatic manner. In the center of each piece is a glyph, inspired by hieroglyphs that were ancient modes of communication, where symbols or marks were carved in relief to convey ideas.
Brindle’s glyph is a three-dimensional rectangle that intersects the center of the translucent box. The glyphs have been described as a beacon cutting through fog – quietly dramatic.
“I’m fascinated with hieroglyphs and how they used them to communicate,” Brindle said. “I use that as kind of a vehicle to do this newer work with glyphs. They go back awhile in the paintings.
There is just something that a spirit bigger than us is speaking to us. When I look at just a single glyph, it is speaking to that bigger power. I found that fascinating to use in the work.”
With Brindle’s use of gold and silver leaf to create the glyphs, he feels they really lend themselves to telling a story and he wanted to further the investigation into glyphs with these paintings.
Casper Brindle, Light-Glyph II, 2021, pigmented acrylic, 74” x 44” x 12”
Two different processes went into creating the works in this exhibit. With the glyphs, he did a lot of preparation, research and models. The decision-making process was very conscious as from the start he had an idea of where he wanted to go with them.
The paintings, on the other hand, had a more Zen approach. Brindle would find himself in a meditative state, a state of calmness where he let the work take over.
“It is a meditative state where all of a sudden at the end of the day, you’re like, ‘What just happened?’” Brindle said. “It’s that kind of thing when you’re driving and then all of a sudden, you’re at your destination and you don’t remember how you got there. That’s the same feeling I get when I make the works. The day starts and then it is 8 p.m. and I’ve got to go home.”
Brindle said he doesn’t typically have a preconceived idea of what he is going to do with the paintings. He lets them paint themselves.
“It’s a constant trance-like state of making right and wrong decisions along the way,” Brindle said. “I don’t say I’m going to do a blue painting. I just start and make a number of decisions along the way and just kind of paint these paintings.”
Throughout the years and with individual paintings, his choice of materials has always changed and shifted, evolving until he gets to where he is now.
“That’s part of the process,” Brindle said. “The best part about making art is the process. Things are changing all the time until you get to a place where you are like, now I have it. I know what this is about.”
The trance-like state is one that he shares with those that experience his work. Brindle said he’s had a lot of reactions to his art, but the most common one is a sense of lightness and calm — a sense of their bodies decompressing and entering a meditative state.
He stressed the importance of seeing his three-dimensional work in person. It’s the only way to experience its depth and the way the light shimmers and moves. The large paintings shift as a person walks by them, inviting viewers to pause, to explore perception.
This is Brindle’s first major show since the pandemic delayed an earlier showing at the William Turner Gallery in 2020. He invites patrons to come and lose themselves in his meditative works, to let art minister to their hungry souls.”
We encourage you to view the digital catalog of LIGHT | GLYPHS. We will be printing a hard copy of this catalog. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the catalog please contact the gallery.
CASPER BRINDLE ARTIST PAGE
EXHIBITION PAGE FOR LIGHT | GLYPHS
With Light | Glyphs, Casper Brindle presents two new bodies of work, each involving dramatic investigations into light, color, and perspective.
A contemporary disciple of the 1960s & 70s Light and Space generation, Brindle is intrigued by the phenomenological possibilities stimulated by color and light. Employing a variety of materials and styles, Brindle’s work engages the viewer in experiences that inspire both reflection and interaction, as one begins to explore the enigmatic spaces of perception.
Utilizing tools and techniques adopted from Southern California’s distinctive car culture, Brindle applies fine layers of airbrushed sprays to create atmospheric gradations of subtle depth. Brindle's treatment of color and light as a material modality, draws the viewer deeper into the illusory depths of the canvas, anchoring our attention against the constant pull of time and distraction, so that we might pause and reflect.
While his work has clear ties to the materiality of the Finish Fetish and Light and Space movements, he synthesizes these sensibilities to create something entirely his own, captivating the viewer in expansive fields that have the power to elicit deeper emotional responses.
Born in Toronto in 1968, Brindle’s family relocated to Los Angeles in 1974, and he has called the city home ever since. Growing up surfing the beaches of LA’s coast undoubtedly made a profound impact on the artist. Brindle started painting as a teen and in his early twenties, he apprenticed for the pioneering Light and Space artist Eric Orr.
Casper Brindle’s work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally. This exhibition is the artist’s seventh solo exhibition with the gallery. His work is held in a number of prominent private and museum collections including the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation and the Morningside College Collection in Sioux City, IA.
CONFLUENCE Exhibition Catalog is now available. Click on the button below to to take a look at the latest publication from William Turner Gallery.
Digital Catalog for the 2021 exhibition CrossCurrents at William Turner Gallery is now available.
Read More
William Turner Gallery is pleased to announce that we will be extending access to Andy Moses: Recent Works until February 27 due to overwhelming demand. The gallery will be offering increased appointment availability through February 27, 2021.
Appointments will still be booked on the William Turner Gallery web site and appointments will be available from 1-5PM, Tuesday through Saturday.
William Turner Gallery is pleased to present the digital catalog for Recent Works, an expansive new series of paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Andy Moses. This extensive presentation marks the artist’s first solo exhibition since his highly acclaimed 30 Year Survey exhibition in 2017 at the Santa Monica College Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery.
Andy Moses: Recent Works presents an artist fully engaged and at the height of his creative process, showcasing perhaps his most ambitious and diverse body of work to date. Implementing techniques that utilize the artist’s almost obsessive study of the alchemical properties of paint, Moses’s work blurs the line between abstraction and a new kind of pictorialism…
A hard copy of the catalog will be available at the gallery. To receive a copy of the catalog by mail please email at turnergallery@gmail.com.
