Ripples in the Looking Glass
October 29, 2022 - December 2, 2022
Opening: Saturday 29th of October 2022 4PM - 6PM
Ripples in the Looking Glass exhibits contemporary artists who employ symbolism in their art to convey rich ideas. From hearts to cows and doorways to chairs, symbols populate the exhibition, lying in wait for visitors to uncover their obfuscated meanings. As the symbols ripple through the looking glass, their meanings trickle toward the viewer with their wanton gazes. Via symbolic devices such as emojis, metonyms, and icons, these artists saturate their sculptures and paintings with well-known or mundane markings to pull the audience into their portals.
Sergio Valenzuela tells stories through his artwork using everyday objects to symbolize complex ideas. He says of his work, “By using elements such as chairs, ladders, beds, monocycles, trapeze artists, swings, machines… it is a way of telling stories about life. The chairs signify, according to the context, opportunities and the patience required for them to step into our lives. The ladders represent our desire to climb, to continue our personal growth. Beds represent periods when we sleep and dream, things we cannot share with anyone else.”
Born in 1964 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, James Kelsey experimented with creating artworks from an early age. Though he has taken welding and fabrication classes, he considers himself “self-taught” as he has developed his artistic style on his own. Of his process, he states, “As a self-taught artist, I feel free to explore my imagination no matter where it may lead. I like creating in the abstract because it requires the viewer to bring something personal to the work of art. They need to call upon their own history, their thoughts, and what they already know to bring their own meaning to any particular sculpture.”
Bringing a sensitivity that stems from her exploration of identity in performance art, Cynthia Coulombe-Bégin’s work draws us into her internal world: exploring the soul and matter, conscience, and the universe. She states, “The notion of performance, the search for identity, and the exposure of the body to an explosive universe are indicative of my desire to cast light on all the beauty and vulnerability of our existence in a single image.”. The artist’s textural paintings often focus on large close-up portrayals of the mouth and eyes, which are depicted with great contrasts of color and chiaroscuro. She directs her attention to an abstract universe full of movement, symbolism, and eroticism.
Fredi Gertsch trains his inexhaustible imagination in the studio, inventing new stories on canvas daily. He has no limits, but the most common theme in his work has been that of the cow. “Humor and positive feelings are important to me; the smiles of the viewers, the joys of the gallery visitor is the desired award for me,” said Gertsch of his work. The artist says of his motif, “Like the primordial mother of all living beings, the cow appears in every painting. I bring colors into harmony which at first glance do not seem to fit and combine different techniques into a vibrating production.”
Painting each artwork to convey both personal meaning and ambiguity, Soren Grau works in two radically different styles: Neo-Expressionism and Suprematism. For his Neo-Expressionist work, Grau cites Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Clyfford Still as inspirations in both style and attitude. With cultural icons and world events often acting as inspiration, he strives to communicate meaning through bold compositions, figures, and colors. Speaking about his neo-expressionist works, Grau explains “I know what I have set out to do but the details that come out in the canvas are an obscured vision of the subject…it’s something you set out to do with passion.”
Michelle Fillmore is a photorealistic painter who found her love of oil painting at the University of Las Vegas, where she graduated with a BA in Painting and Drawing in 2015. Fillmore aims to start a discussion about mental health and its inherent stigmas and challenges through her paintings which are autobiographical metaphors. Her tightly controlled photorealistic style is at odds with the chaotic subject matter represented in her imagery. With this technique, Fillmore’s work embodies the beauty in imperfection. Each painting is a celebration of a person’s ability to change and transform. Fillmore says of her creative process, “I paint the things I do partially as a way to take the parts of my past that once made me feel isolated and turn them into opportunities to connect.”
Since the opening of Artspace Warehouse in 2010, the gallery continues to be an industry leader in affordable, museum-quality artworks making collecting art accessible and budget-friendly. With one gallery in Zurich and two galleries in Los Angeles, Artspace Warehouse specializes in guilt-free international urban, pop, graffiti, figurative, and abstract art. The expansive 5,000-square-foot space offers a large selection of emerging and established artists from all over the world.
