Mark Steven Greenfield @ Historic Broadway Station - Timelapse Video

MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD - A Survey 2001 - 2021
Currently On View at MOAH

Mark Steven Greenfield is a native Angeleno. Born into a military family, he spent his early years in Taiwan and Germany, returning to Los Angeles at the age of 10. Entering into an American adolescence after being abroad gave Greenfield a unique look at the negative stereotyping of African Americans like himself, sparking his interest in the complexities of the Black experience both historically and in contemporary society. Greenfield’s creative process is based on research that delves into topics of Black genealogy, heritage, and cultural representation. His artwork is anchored in aspects of Black history that have been buried, forgotten, or omitted. 

Mark Steven Greenfield studied at what is now the Otis College of Art and Design and went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Education from California State University, Long Beach in 1973. To support his artistic practice, he held various positions as a visual display artist, park director, graphic design instructor, and police sketch artist before returning to school to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1987. Since then, Greenfield has been a significant figure in the Los Angeles arts scene, serving as arts administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, director of the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Towers of Simon Rodia, director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and as a board member for the Downtown Arts Development Association, the Korean Museum, and The Armory Center for the Arts — to name a few. Greenfield has been teaching painting and design courses at Los Angeles City College since 1997.

MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD A Survey, 2001-2021 this Saturday at MOAH

Balthazar, 2021, Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Wood Panel, 20" X 16"

Mark Steven Greenfield is a native Angeleno. Born into a military family, he spent his early years in Taiwan and Germany, returning to Los Angeles at the age of 10. Entering into an American adolescence after being abroad gave Greenfield a unique look at the negative stereotyping of African Americans like himself, sparking his interest in the complexities of the Black experience both historically and in contemporary society. Greenfield’s creative process is based on research that delves into topics of Black genealogy, heritage, and cultural representation. His artwork is anchored in aspects of Black history that have been buried, forgotten, or omitted. 

Mark Steven Greenfield studied at what is now the Otis College of Art and Design and went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Education from California State University, Long Beach in 1973. To support his artistic practice, he held various positions as a visual display artist, park director, graphic design instructor, and police sketch artist before returning to school to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1987. Since then, Greenfield has been a significant figure in the Los Angeles arts scene, serving as arts administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, director of the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Towers of Simon Rodia, director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and as a board member for the Downtown Arts Development Association, the Korean Museum, and The Armory Center for the Arts — to name a few. Greenfield has been teaching painting and design courses at Los Angeles City College since 1997.

MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD A Survey, 2001-2021

MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY
665 W. Lancaster Blvd. Lancaster, CA 93534
Opening Saturday, January 22, 2022 4-6PM

Mark Steven Greenfield
Black Madonna Exhibition

Eyeful & Cool Guy - Two works from the current exhibition FLASHBACKS

Saturday at William Turner Gallery - Catalog Signing for LIGHT | GLYPHS & Special Music Event

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

Gallery Artists Ed Moses, Andy Moses and Charles Arnoldi Featured in On the Edge: Los Angeles Art 1970's - 1990's from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection

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.

Edward Goldman’s Own ‘Made In LA’— Pandemic Version

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.

PRESS - Autre Magazine - Oliver Kupper speaks with Casper Brindle

Casper Brindle Video by EMS

Thank you to EMS for this short exhibition video. To view the exhibition catalog clink the link below.

PRESS: The Argonaut Reviews LIGHT | GLYPHS

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.”

Casper Brindle, LIGHT | GLYPHS - Catalog is now Available

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

TOMORROW @ WTG - Casper Brindle: LIGHT | GLYPHS - 4-8PM

CASPER BRINDLE 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.

CASPER BRINDLE

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.

Meet Artist Kim DeJesus - Featured in the LA WEEKLY

Be sure to catch the feature in LA WEEKLY highlighting the work of Kim DeJesus. Read the article on the LA WEEKLY web site by clicking the button below.

Kim’s work is featured in the current exhibition CONFLUENCE. View the catalog for the exhibition below.

CONFLUENCE Exhibition Catalog Now Available

CONFLUENCE Exhibition Catalog is now available. Click on the button below to to take a look at the latest publication from William Turner Gallery.

Andy Moses: Recent Works - Extended Through February 27, 2021

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.

SPECTRUM NEWS 1 FEATURE - Andy Moses: Recent Works

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Four years ago, artist Andy Moses was celebrated in a 30-year survey of his life’s work not far from where he grew up.

Mid-career, his work showed a consistent palette inspired by his time spent in the water while surfing off the beaches of Southern California.

---

What You Need To Know

"Recent Works" by Andy Moses is currently on view at the William Turner Gallery in Bergamot Station until February 10

While attending CalArts, Moses focused on performance, film, and painting and studied with Michael Asher, John Baldessari, and Barbara Kruger

Moses' father Ed was an American painter and was part of a group of artists called the “Cool School” that included artists Ed Ruscha, Edward Kienholz, and Ken Price

In 2017, 30 years of Andy Moses’ work was celebrated in a survey in the Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery at Santa Monica College

---

“You never saw the same thing twice,” said Moses. “The line was always moving. The colors were always shifting.”

Looking at his most recent artwork today, you still see the same influence.

“Then when you rode a wave, you saw the texture on the wave, you saw the changing light, the shifting shades of color, and those were gigantic influences on me as a painter,” he said.

Interested in the physical properties of paint, Moses developed a method of painting through chemical reactions and by playing with viscosity and gravity to create compositions that simulate nature. Even the shape of his canvas looks like a wave.

“I’m interested in how they suggest landscape or this kind of Earthscape, capturing a view of somewhere of the Earth,” said Moses. “It could be oceanic, it could be desert, but you’re looking through this flat space into the infinite and you’re capturing all the subtle change of light that actually happens when you’re looking at this kind of phenomenon.”

Growing up as the son of Ed Moses, one of the most celebrated artists in Los Angeles' history, Moses had a lot to live up to once he decided to become an artist himself. While studying film at CalArts, Moses discovered he preferred having sole control of a canvas over a camera. He now paints out of his father’s old studio, where his spirit can be found everywhere.

“It was great growing up with a father for a painter,” said Moses. “There was always something to look at. He was always pushing the boundaries. He was always evolving. He was always moving forward.”

Now, it’s his turn to move forward to his newest show called "Recent Works" at the William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica's Bergamot Station.

Related Stories

The Black Index: Artists Present Works of Mourning, Community
John Outterbridge Leaves Behind Legacy of Arts Education
Santa Monica Asks Artists to Help Economic Recovery Efforts
Artist Recreates Objects Mistaken for Weapons by Police

“One of the things that I love when people have come to the gallery, especially during this time of COVID, there’s this appetite to be in the presence of an actual work of art, not just see something digitally or online or virtually, and these pieces are really interactive,” said gallery director William Turner.

Opening during a pandemic does limit visitors, but Moses' work gets their full attention.

“For 35 years now, I’ve been interested in exploring this line between abstraction and the galactic and microscopic phenomenon on a human scale, and how we relate to it,” he said.

Art is human, and human is nature.

Andy Moses: Recent Works Exhibition Video

Short video celebrating highlights from Andy Moses: Recent Works currently on view at William Turner

LA WEEKLY ARTS CALENDAR (HOMEWARD BOUND

LA WEEKLY ARTS CALENDAR (HOMEWARD BOUND)

READ ON LA WEEKLY CALENDAR

Last day to see Black Madonna - 84 Page fully illustrated catalog now available.

Please come see us at or before 5pm today for the last viewing of Black Madonna. 84-page fully illustrated catalog is now available at the gallery or for mail order. Please contact William Turner Gallery to order your copy.

OPENING NEXT SATURDAY - BLACK MADONNA - MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD

Collateral, 2020, Gold Leaf and Acrylic on Wood Panel, 30" X 56”

"For the faithful, the Black Madonnas represent the basis of theological mystery from which all possibility emanates. For the clergy, they provide cover for some unexplained religious dogma. For me, they held all the intrigue of confronting a blank canvas.” — Mark Steven Greenfield 

BLACK MADONNA
MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD

OPENING NEXT SATURDAY

We will be open from 11-7 next Saturday for an all day opening reception in full compliance with CDC-recommendations and social distancing protocol.

We look forward to welcoming you to view the exhibition virtually and by appointment from September 19 - November 28, abiding by all of the CDC-recommended precautions. 

BOOK AN APPOINTMENT

William Turner Gallery is pleased to present, Black Madonna, an exhibition of new and recent work by Mark Steven Greenfield. The exhibition explores aspects of the African American experience in American culture, often critiquing and offering unique perspectives on a society still grappling with the consequences of slavery and racial injustice. As Greenfield has stated, “My work incorporates irony, humor, tragedy, pathos, history, and a myriad of other tools, to challenge long-held notions of race in a different way." 

The exhibition highlights a striking new series of 17 Black Madonna paintings, which re-imagine these unique religious icons, that began appearing in the 13th and 14th centuries in churches throughout Medieval Europe. The origin and purpose of the Black Madonnas in religious iconography are somewhat of a mystery and the subject of much scholarly debate, which inspired Greenfield to infuse them with his own contemporary meaning and perspective. 

Mississippi Cookout, 2018, Gold Leaf & Acrylic on Wood Panel, 24”x18”

Greenfield's versions are rendered in the Byzantine style of their art historical predecessors, with the black Virgin Mother and Baby Jesus as the central focus within circular compositions, or tondos. These tondos float amongst abstract discs, set within fields of lustrous, gold leaf. The Madonnas predominate before a variety of backgrounds, which were traditionally innocuous. Greenfield, however, presents these backdrops as various revenge fantasies, where white supremacists are cast in the role of victims, suffering the fates they often inflicted. 

The effect is striking, the meaning unexpected. For Greenfield, a dedicated meditator, the discs symbolize the mantras one repeats during meditation, and often appear in his work. The Black Madonnas, seated innocently before the violence playing out behind, are the thoughts which come unbidden during meditation between mantras - to be acknowledged, then released. The Madonnas play their traditional role, conveying notions of maternal love, seemingly oblivious to these various scenes of retribution, where the rope is decidedly on the other neck. Yet these role reversals are less about revenge fantasies and more about creating contexts for shifts in perspective - for empathy. Tinged with humor, titles like, Mississippi Cookout, and Burnin’ Down the House, invite us to imagine an alternate reality, so that we might better understand the brutal realities of the past as we navigate our way forward. As Greenfield states, “Fear of the “other” often devolves into mindless hatred. Yet, sometimes the path to empathy lies in the visualization of one’s physical victimization—particularly when paired with a symbol that has come to be associated with universal love.” He adds, “The revenge fantasy exists in the darker regions of the subconscious in response to centuries of injustice. It is subdued by the higher aspiration that leads toward a more saintly life. As during the Renaissance, when Black Madonnas first gained prominence, they serve as metaphors for a spectrum of new beginnings.” 

Throughout his career, Greenfield's work has dealt with elucidating the African American experience - examining stereotypes and other acts of oppression, often by illuminating the most oppressive of acts - those of omission. Pieces like Escrava Anastacia , and Zong , are among a number of new works in the exhibition that present us with powerful images of figures and events neglected by history. Greenfield's images of a muzzled Anastacia, a legendary South American slave, known for her exceptional beauty and miraculous powers of healing, and the ill-fated souls cast to oblivion from the slave ship Zong, compel us to learn their stories. 

This exhibition was a year and a half in the planning, yet feels uncannily destined for this moment. It opens at a time of unprecedented upheaval, where a global pandemic and outrage over continuing racial inequality, have challenged our institutions, and our perceptions of them, to the core. With Black Madonna , Mark Steven Greenfield brings an important and timely perspective to the discussion. 

We look forward to welcoming you to view the exhibition virtually and by appointment, abiding by all of the CDC-recommended precautions. 

VIEW THE PRESS RELEASE & SCHEDULING PAGE FOR BLACK MADONNA