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.
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 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.
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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.
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.
“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.
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.
Short video celebrating highlights from Andy Moses: Recent Works currently on view at William Turner
Andy Moses: RECENT WORKS - A short video about the exhibition from EMS - Photograph courtesy Alan Shaffer Photography
LA WEEKLY ARTS CALENDAR (HOMEWARD BOUND)
READ ON LA WEEKLY CALENDAR
By Bridgette M. Redman
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
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.
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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.
