Lois Lambert Call for Up-and-Coming Young Artists in Los Angeles

Deadline: May 31, 2022: 5pm PST

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Exhibition 

At Lois Lambert Gallery, we support pursuing a career in the arts. We have seen how COVID-19 has made it even harder for young artists to get started. We want to provide a platform to encourage young people to continue their careers in the arts. Therefore, we will be giving up-and-coming artists from the Los Angeles area the opportunity to participate in an exhibition at our Upstairs Gallery. Beginning in the Summer of 2022, each group exhibition will last two weeks. We hope to help artists build exhibition experience, sell work, and build connections with other artists in the area. 

Submissions

We welcome submissions in any media style. Work must have been made in the last 2 years. Initial submissions must be made with digital images/videos and sent to info@loislambertgallery.com with the subject line, ‘CALL FOR YOUNG ARTISTS’. We recommend sending images of 6-8 works. Along with the JPGs, please submit a brief explanation of the work.

Artist Criteria

Must be between 18-30 years of age and located in Los Angeles 

Selection Process & Notification

All submitted works will be considered by Lois Lambert Gallery. All artists who submit work for consideration will be notified of our decision by June 1, 2022. All decisions are final. 

Important

Artists are responsible for delivering artwork ready-to-hang during installation. Each accepted artist will work with the exhibition team to assure the work is properly prepared for display. Artists are responsible for picking up their work after the exhibition closes.   

Chris Fraticelli "Into Pieces"

“Altered States Of Being” Broken Ceramics on Wood Wall Sculpture, 38” x 32” x 15”

Lois Lambert Gallery presents Chris Fraticelli, “Into Pieces”, an exhibition of sculptures that have transformed the endless supply of decorative mass produced ceramics into metaphorical mosaic sculptures commenting on contemporary society. 

Fraticelli is a self-taught artist who started creating found object sculptures as a child working with his Grandpa, Louie, a coal miner by trade, but who’s avocation was art and found object sculpting. One of Chris’ earliest memories is of his Grandpa’s five-foot tall mushroom made from plumber’s pipe, concrete, paint cans and venetian blinds. 

Upon graduation from the US Naval Academy with a degree in economics, Chris was commissioned a 2nd lieutant and spent seven years in the Marine Corps. While serving campaigns in Somalia and Operation Desert Storm, Chris was a platoon commander and worked with mines and explosives. Ironically, Chris’ work is about putting objects back together.

In Chris’ travels, he gathers broken, and sometimes even whole, ceramic figurines and statuary to break again and reassemble into themed sculptures. He is inspired by urban decay, disorder and maximalist design. The pieces begin their lives in a pristine environment and are purposely damaged and birthed into a new reality meant to inspire awe, witticism and questioning. These sculptures work on several levels: the visual, the comical, the emotional and the political. Chris harnesses the chaos of the broken ceramics by giving them new life and meaning. He relates his process to “doing a puzzle in reverse. The ceramics are found, the idea is formed, the base structure is built, the ceramic pieces are broken and then the sculpture is fabricated.” Chris’ work encourages people to ask questions of themselves and society as a whole. His fabrications comment on the spaces between memory, memento and story. “I want to find a place where I can create scenarios which allow people to question everything.”   

“Everyone Wears A Clown Mask” Broken Ceramics on Wood Wall Sculpture, 28” x 21” x 11”

One of Chris’ recent sculptures titled, “Silent Spring”, is a tribute to Rachael Carson’s ground-breaking book published in 1962, Silent Spring. This book, long before the environment was a point of contention, addressed the damage of the overuse of chemicals in the destruction of the environment and the death of wildlife.

Chris has also worked as a producer for ten years on television shows including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Man Show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Windy City Heat. In January 2019, the California Heritage Museum gave Chris his first solo how.

Sebastian Boni "Color Dialogues"

Lois Lambert Gallery presents Sebastian Boni, “Color Dialogues”, an exhibition of chromatic light boxes focusing on the visual and emotional relationship between the source of illumination and space.     

“Color Dialogues” is strongly influenced by Sebastian Boni’s work as an architect. Some of his past projects were starting points for this conceptual study. At the root of this series is the visual perception of architectural objects made of multiple overlapping layers of different materials such as: translucent glass or plastics, glass with silk-screened textures applied directly on the slabs or featuring treated surfaces that create particular visual effects. In most cases, the visual effects of the translucent surfaces are intentionally the result of a design, “but sometimes it happened as a wonderful unexpected result,” says Boni. This series is a result of Sebastian’s desire to achieve a peculiar visual communication stemming from all of his experiences. They contain all of the emotional components springing from the effects obtained through successive interposition of several layers of material. The space between these layers of material determine the dynamic impression of the relationships between colors.

Light is the vital element in “Color Dialogues.” The flow of colors generate a vast range of gradients and shades. What is providing the countless different reactions, in relation to daylight, is also what amplifies the innumerable possibilities created by the interaction with the light produced by artificial lighting at a specific location. When the internal lighting is switched off, they take a different dimension but still feature a life of their own. In this mode, [more effects are surfaced] created by the different shades of colors only receiving light from the outside. The change is significant, strongly perceptible and further multiplies the communication offerings of the series in a succession whose end is difficult to glimpse.

“Joker” Methacrylate Plastic Slabs, Overlaid colored films and LED light system 23.6” x 23.6”

“The thing that I want to express the most about this series, is the impression I had when looking at the first completed specimen. It was immediately clear that all the chromatic effects and innumerable nuances that I have mentioned so far were enclosed in the space between its translucent surfaces. The internal space is a void, an absolute void, that is filled and becomes animated with effects every time the gaze of the observer crosses it [thus beginning] a silent dialogue taking place in the room of our emotions. The emptiness of the “Color Dialogues” is actually a full space, finding its home in the small or large place of that art that is inside each one of us” – Boni.

Boni was born and raised in Rome. He graduated high school from the first artistic high school, Liceo Artistico - Alessandro Caravillian, in 1985 and graduated from Universitá Degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - Facoltá di Architettura in 1992 with a degree in architect. Boni has participated as an architect and product designer in multiple exhibitions in Rome. Boni is a member of the National and Roman Architect Associations. This is his first exhibition in the United States.

Hillary Gruenberg "Gratitude"

Lois Lambert Gallery presents Gratitude, a compilation of 20 years of work by Hillary Gruenberg including oil paintings, books, works on paper, and her latest work: paintings on silk, taffeta and satin.

Hillary’s work comes from the unconscious; and her focus is primarily on the process, not the final outcome. There is a genuine awareness that occurs from this unconscious state. “Gruenberg is the conduit not for messages, but for apparitions”, (Art Critic, Peter Frank).

“For Hillary Gruenberg, the world is a web of things. Images, presences, and effects interface with one another in dense networks, sometimes translucent, sometimes opaque, sometimes flat, sometimes collaged, always hovering on the verge of concretion but never quite regimented enough to fix themselves visually. There is always some other line, some other texture, some other formulation making sure to thwart the emergence of a narrative per se; recurring motifs serve to disperse rather than construct meaning, constantly proposing different, contrary relationships. Even the simplest icon — a human face, a common object — floats free of confining context. Gruenberg never lacks for lucidity or coherence, but what she brings to the picture teases us with the promise of a story that, finally, evades us, its components arrayed and layered and patterned in ways that emphasize picture, even moment, over account.

“My Mothers Hands” Oil on canvas 90” x 60”

For this installment, Gruenberg’s four groups of work presented here all date from the past ten years; they overlap in production, but in little else save the spirit of the artist herself. Earliest is a series of relatively large canvases populated by a variety of motifs, most notably looming clocks and a veritable cascade of hands — or, more accurately, fingers, as often as not detached from any palm (but still tending to cluster). These devices rest in a curiously expansive quasi-landscape space that renders absurd the obdurate objecthood of clockface and digit alike. The occasional appearance of an interior space of some kind introduces another level of incongruity. Restless and unsetlled, described in line rather than modeled the images conform to a cartoon kind of vision, one hilarious and ominous by turn. In its breadth and bumptiousness this work has a Pop Art quality — closer, however, to the painterly, humanistic Pop of early ‘60s Peter Saul or David Hockney (among others) than to the cool affectlessness we generally associate with the style.

Gruenberg’s work with books has been twofold, producing bound sequences of drawings and, by contrast, taking pre-extant volumes and altering them , transforming text and image alike into paintingcollages on paper. The bound sequences can be considered a subset of her overall drawing activity, but the intervened books constitute a whole other creature. They can be regarded as Gruenberg’s homage to the pleasures of reading and intimate looking, that is, to the handheld page. She transforms image and text alike into a no-longer-legible but optically sensuous space, not the space of painting but the space of literature — even the space of the illuminated manuscript. Gruenberg is certainly not the first modernist to recycle books in this manner, but there is a gentle urgency and poignancy to her reworking that signals an awareness of the book’s perilous existence in the digital age. Here, she joins other book artists in arguing for the liberation rather than the extinction of the book, demonstrating that, altered or fully fabricated, the book has a new, post-indexical life as an art form.

Gruenberg’s other work on, and otherwise with, paper supports this “paginated” reasoning. But, as noted above, sequence here, across discrete pages or sheets, manifests the evolution of imagery rather than the articulation of meaningful events. Each drawing or watercolor or collage claims its own integral contextualization, no matter how many images it might share with its companions. These are variations on a theme (or cluster of themes), not developments of leitmotifs; indeed, they feel pianistic rather than operatic.

“No Matter Where It Lies” (Front, detail) Acrylic, metallic stitching and gold leaf on silk 70” x 43”

The most recent work to preoccupy the artist brings her to a new format, even medium, altogether — fibrous, weaving-like paintings realized as large banners. Here, Gruenberg is thinking in a new way about texture, color, composition, material, and even physical space, displaying these textiles as free-hanging objects. The newfound textural quality has redounded on Gruenberg’s imagery as well; the fanciful references to the real world are all but subsumed into patterned patchworks, evocative of various decorative and ritual traditions — Tibetan, West African, Andean, aboriginal Australian, and so forth. The knowing eye is likely to find associations Gruenberg herself did not incorporate, but that’s all to the better: these weavings are meant to work both as self-referential abstractions and as syntheses of human vision, honoring rather than directly imitating the various languages of the eye.

If Hillary Gruenberg has no “story” to tell, she has many sensations to provoke. Hers is an art of spontaneous response crafted into stable aesthetic form(s), sensitive to the stew of the subconscious rather than the logic of the conscious and, by contrast, to formal rather than pictorial strictures. As such, ever the Neo-Modernist, Gruenberg conflates two prime currents in modernism, the atavistic — childlike, surreal, rooted in the subconscious — and the formalist — structured, self-aware, in search of coherent order. The child has not been tamed, but she has been trained.” –– Peter Frank

Hillary studied at Otis College of Art and Design and has been awarded a grant from Women Painters West. She is also a student of Tom Wudl in Los Angeles.

Tomás Ochoa "Pulvis Nigrum, Black Gunpowder"

Lois Lambert Gallery presents Colombian artist Tomás Ochoa, in a solo exhibition, “Pulvis Nigrum”, Black Gunpowder, a selection of pieces from two bodies of work.

“Paradise Black Line” is a series of images taken from the landscape of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, as it has remained untouched for over a century. In 2003 the Arhuaco people walked all along the border of their ancestral territory protesting the paramilitary control in that region. The Arhuaco Mamo, (mamo meaning leading elder), named that border La Línea Negra, which translates into The Black Line. The conflict-free protest resulted in “reduced violence and strengthened Indigenous control of the territory”. Ochoa viewed this migration as a poetic and political act and it inspired him to travel to that region and walk along the border himself.

Despite the paramilitary occupancy of that region, the ecosystems have been well preserved due to the lack of development. This has allowed the landscape to grow into a real paradise. The idyllic nature of his images versus the fire that helps create them evokes the same paradox that arises in the discussion of the well preserved landscape, in relation to the violence that occurs there.

In “Memento Mori” Ochoa explores the concept of ruins as an allegory. He composes the scenes with architectural elements from photographs taken in his travels and then he embellishes with photos of foliage from his own garden symbolizing hope and renewal. The outdoors, the weather, and the vegetation that invade the space in the mocked ruins create an index of time.

Ochoa uses oil and gunpowder to replace every pixel of his photograph and fire to transfer the image onto the canvas. Ochoa creates, as he puts it, “photography that is not photography and painting that is notpainting”. The granular texture that the gunpowder leaves behind creates an illusion of depth that can not be rendered through pure painting or photography. The material gun powder, Ochoa has chosen, symbolizes injury, and the act of lighting the image on fire transforms it into an act of catharsis. The fire in this instance creates something of beauty and calm that gives hope for a new beginning.

Tomás Ochoa studied Visual Arts, Division of Postgraduate Studies from UNAM in Mexico City, Mexico and Cinematograhic Direction at ECAM in Madrid, Spain. Ochoa’s work has been exhibited in Chile, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Perú, Switzerland, Spain, and the United States. Additionally his work has been included in several international biennials including Columbia, Italy, Argentina, Ecuador, Japan, Singapore and Spain. In 2015 Ochoa’s work was featured in Beyond the Tropics a Parallel exhibition to the Venice Biennale. In 2016 Ochoa was given the ArtNexus Acquisition Award for best Artwork in Bogotá, Colombia. Tomás Ochoa’s work is currently being featured at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA.

“Dibuja el Fuego I” Gunpowder on Canvas 47.2in x 47.2in

Joan Robey "Expect the Unexpected"

“Fin de Cycle” Wire, Curtain Rings, Scrubbles, Broom 63” x 64” x 3”

Joan Robey exhibits her new series, “Expect the Unexpected”.

Vulnerability and aggression are inherent in mankind and the things we create, just as they are in the forces of nature. Joan Robey explores these concepts using the desert as her background. The desert is visually conflicting, pitting beauty and danger in the same arena. The foliage is dramatic yet sturdy and thrives in a harsh environment. Robey sees the desert as a perfect metaphor for the human condition. Like humans in our constructed environments, desert life thrives despite unfavorable odds. It requires resiliency and preservation to exist in such a setting.

Joan’s work parallels the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi which refers to an implicit sadness in discarded objects. Wabi-sabi juxtaposes transience and imperfection with a positive opportunity for re-use. Robey collects her materials with this tradition in mind, and views the remnants as reflections of past lives becoming new again. Robey is constantly evaluating relationships between items to ensure that her vision and statement are clear.

“In projecting human predicaments onto inanimate objects, I feel that I can objectify and articulate the human experience.” Life is full of contrast: movement and repose, tension and equilibrium, attraction and repulsion. These are the moments that define us. When looking at abstract pieces of art symbolizing these moments, we are able to see the irony of our circumstances. They become tolerable and even humorous. Robey’s pieces prior to this series were more industrial in material and concept however, “Expect the Unexpected” has taken a lighter and perhaps breathier tone, leaning towards a more poetic understanding of the desert.

Joan Robey is a self-taught mixed media assemblage artist. Her work is included in several collections, including the Peter Norton Family Trust and Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami. She has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States for fifteen years, ranging from exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum to the Orange County Museum, Newport Beach. Influenced by the art of Kandinsky, Serra and Neveloso, Robey is most noted for her juxtaposition of reclaimed and re-used objects.

“Hand to Mouth” Rubber Gloves, Metal Basket 24” x 26”x 7”

Vulnerability and aggression are inherent in mankind and the things we create, just as they are in the forces of nature. Joan Robey explores these concepts using the desert as her background. The desert is visually conflicting, pitting beauty and danger in the same arena. The foliage is dramatic yet sturdy and thrives in a harsh environment. Robey sees the desert as a perfect metaphor for the human condition. Like humans in our constructed environments, desert life thrives despite unfavorable odds. It requires resiliency and preservation to exist in such a setting.

Joan’s work parallels the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi which refers to an implicit sadness in discarded objects. Wabi-sabi juxtaposes transience and imperfection with a positive opportunity for re-use. Robey collects her materials with this tradition in mind, and views the remnants as reflections of past lives becoming new again. Robey is constantly evaluating relationships between items to ensure that her vision and statement are clear.

“In projecting human predicaments onto inanimate objects, I feel that I can objectify and articulate the human experience.” Life is full of contrast: movement and repose, tension and equilibrium, attraction and repulsion. These are the moments that define us. When looking at abstract pieces of art symbolizing these moments, we are able to see the irony of our circumstances. They become tolerable and even humorous. Robey’s pieces prior to this series were more industrial in material and concept however, “Expect the Unexpected” has taken a lighter and perhaps breathier tone, leaning towards a more poetic understanding of the desert.

Joan Robey is a self-taught mixed media assemblage artist. Her work is included in several collections, including the Peter Norton Family Trust and Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami. She has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States for fifteen years, ranging from exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum to the Orange County Museum, Newport Beach. Influenced by the art of Kandinsky, Serra and Neveloso, Robey is most noted for her juxtaposition of reclaimed and re-used objects.

Edel Bordón, Yamilé Bordón and Pablo Bordón "It Runs in the Family"

Edel Bordón, Yamille Bordón, and Pablo Bordón exhibit “It Runs in the Family”

Edel Bordón , “Navegando por la Nacar” oil on canvas 48in x 30in

EDEL BORDÓN | “Crowds and a Touch of Distinction” Edel Bordón’s “Crowds and a Touch of Distinction” series is defined by the need to understand and express one’s individual identity within the context of a clamoring society. This recent series oscillates between the individual’s experience and how those individuals amass into a collective, which acts as a different entity altogether. “The Crowd”, as Edel refers to it, demonstrates how a group of people can shed their individual perspectives and become easily manipulated by the persuasion of a group, a mentality prominent in the polarized world today.

Edel’s portraits capture the human form and their detachment from reality. “The Crowd” is characterized by simple outlines of people compressed together with a single element with which to interact. These elements create a dialogue with “The Crowd” about the risks, difficulties and uncertainties of existence. The doors, windows, drains, and ledges are all commentary on the risks in life that guide and spur the course of human existence.

Edel primarily approaches his paintings with a stream of consciousness rather than a concrete idea that has to be materialized. He does not execute preliminary sketch; he uses an experimental technique with diluted oils to mix a wash similar to watercolor in transparency. This creates a subdued color palette for expressing distance and detachment. In some works this palette is also paired with bold colors to emphasize contrast. Edel eventually becomes the spectator of his paintings rather than the author.

Edel Bordón received his Master’s Degree in Fine Art at the Superior Institute of Art and the National School of Art. Bordón has had solo exhibitions internationaly including Brazil, Germany, Mexico, US and Switzerland. Edel’s artwork can be found in the collection of Museum Beatriz Liaskosky in Zurich, the Museum of Finest Cuban Art Maximilian Reiss in Austria and the private collection of Michelle Wojcik in the US. Edel is a member of the National League of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). Edel has been painting for the last 40 years and continues to work in Havana, Cuba.

Yamilé Bordón, “Pieza II” Wood and Metal, 3” x 2” x 1”

YAMILÉ BORDÓN | “Speculation” Yamilé Bordón is a sculptor working with three dimensional readymade objects. Her series “Speculation” is about the transformation of everyday items into moments that are both personal and historical. She rejects a purely visual aesthetic in favor of a conceptually driven approach. Yamilé is fascinated by the fundamental and architectural beauty of regular objects rather than their functional use. By modifying, reassembling, deconstructing, reconstructing, and rotating these objects she is able to reinterpret their meaning based on their new context. She casts aside the original function and explores how the items exist in reality now that she has changed their form. Her process is fueled by the discovery of new ways to look at the piece in a three dimensional space.

Yamilé often reflects on Duchamps Readymades by choosing her sculptures instead of sculpting each piece from raw material. However, her pieces derive a much stronger nostalgia from moments in her life. She refers to her creative process as “checking boxes” in her memories. Simply rotating an object on its side can write a new narrative for the object; it overcomes its past self and becomes a representation of Yamilé’s memory. Through her female perspective each piece represents evolutions of herself and the world she understands. They are akin to poetry for her and through them we can understand glimpses of her world.

Yamilé Bordón received her degree from the National Academy of Fine Arts of San Alejandro in Havana, Cuba where she also resides as the Department Chair of Sculpture. Yamilé’s work is exhibited in private collections and galleries in Cuba, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, USA, France, Germany, and Venezuela. Her work can be found in permanent collections including Gallerie Havana in Switzerland, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, the UNESCO Exhibition Hall in Paris and the Visual Arts Development Center in Havana, Cuba.

Pablo Bordón, “Machado” Gelatin Silver Print, 35.4” x 35.4”

PABLO BORDÓN | “Ludo” and “HDRs” Pablo Bordón is a photographer that works with both analog and digital film typically using a monochromatic palette. His photographic series, “Ludo” and “HDRs”, question objective reality by deconstructing and creating other realities. These new realities are founded on the transformation of identity as well as abstracted and hyper realistic urban landscapes.

The “HDRs” series is about the deconstruction of an urban landscape. Pablo first finds the environment he wants to photograph and then digitally enhances it in order to create an abstract hyper-reality. The result is a barrage of layered information representing the hectic movement of cities.

The “Ludo” series is inspired by Neue Sachlichkeit or “New Objectivity” of the 1920’s and 1930’s photography. Pablo exposes the objective truth of the reality depicted in his photographs. First, he provides a diving mask for the model. By providing this mask he allows the model to conceal themselves thereby liberating them from their sense of self. The mask gives the model an opportunity to try on different identities and allows them to be less self-conscious. It disinhibits their reservations about who they think they should be in lieu of who they want to be in that moment.

Pablo Bordón earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Art at San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts where he studied cinematography, videography, photography, and design. He completed a residency and his Master’s Degree at the The University of Arts of Cuba (ISA) where he worked as a professor of photography on the Visual Arts faculty for 5 years. Pablo received the Gutstav Schübeck Scholarship (DAAD) to develop his studies in Alfter, Germany. His work has been shown in Mexico, Germany, USA, The Bahamas, and Cuba. He has participated in the III Latin American Photographic Conference in Cuba, the First and Second International Festival of Video Creation in Mexico, and a new media workshop exchange with the University of Stockholm, Sweden, as a representative of the University of the Arts (ISA), Havana, Cuba.

Carol Coates "MindsEye"

“MindsEye IV” Mixed media on board 34” x 48”

Lois Lambert presents mixed media artist Carol Coates and her latest series on perception and choice, MindsEye.

MindsEye developed out of Coates’ earlier series Dissonance. Dissonance featured fabricated characters in unsettling situations that stimulated questions of how they could, would, or should respond to their environments and influences. Coates developed this idea further in the MindsEye series by changing the focus from the situation the characters were in, to how an individuals identity is perceived. The subjects of these paintings include people of different ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, races, personalities, and cultures yet are all simultaneously bold and playful, flaunting vibrant expressions and saturated colors. These pieces challenge the viewer to abandon their preconceived judgements about the external qualities of an individual and embrace the unfamiliar through a lens of sensitivity and respect.

This series questions how we see others and asks how we think others might see the world in return. Coates gathers her inspiration from our currently polarized society, where snap decisions from first impressions evolve into concrete judgements about the world and the people in it. Coates challenges the certainty with which these quick judgements are asserted and thus creates awareness. The steampunk eyeglasses depicted in each of Coates’s pieces embodies this philosophy as they symbolize a new lens of compassion that Coates encourages the viewer to look through while interpreting her work. These paintings as a whole are an invitation to stop, slow down, and listen to the person beneath the extrema surrounding them, rather than the extrema themselves.

“MindsEye X” Mixed media on board 22” x 36”

Carol, before she started this series, forged and welded the eye glasses used in these images. Coates begins her compositions with photographs of live models. These images are then digitally augmented into contrived characters. These initial characters either become references for an oil or acrylic painting or the basis of a mixed media work that incorporates the photographs as well as the painting. Coates has mastered a wide variety of skills ranging from drawing and painting to metal smithing, sculpture, darkroom and digital photography. Each of these tools play a part in the composition and execution of her series Mindseye.

Carol Coates received her Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the University of Michigan. She was awarded the Bronze Medal in New Media from Fortezza de Basso in Florence, Italy in 2003. Publicly, Coates constructed a mixed media mesh overlay installation at the World Headquarters for Dow Chemicals Co. as well as a 300 ft mural in the Midland County Circuit Courtroom in Michigan. She has also shown in museums and galleries nationwide including the Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Michigan.

Thomas Roth "Absence of Hue"

“B2” Mixed media on wood panel 36” x 36”

Thomas Roth exhibits his abstract series on minimalism, Absence of Hue.

Thomas Roth is an abstract minimalist. He has a background in Scandinavian abstract art and a formal education from Beckmans College of Art in Stockholm, Sweden, a current and historical hotbed of minimal high design. Roth’s work is most often characterized by his exclusive use of white. It tends to be worked thoroughly to give the surfaces great tension and three dimensional quality. His focus rests primarily on his process, the surface structure, and the relationship between light and form.

Roth’s curiosity begins with the materials themselves. Used and recycled items including plastic forks, zip ties, styrofoam cut outs, and twigs function as the essential materials of his work. These items are infinitely available and typically unusual in form, allowing Roth to create unique pieces out of commonplace items. From here he questions how light will interact with these materials and how the shadows might create depth on the surface. This step challenges the boundary between painting and sculpture. It is the difference between a frozen moment painted on canvas and a dynamic and tangible relief sculpture that fluctuates in perspective. Roth then creates repetition, sometimes with variation. After this, Roth allows each piece to evolve independently based on the metamorphosis of the material’s physical form. This is achieved through melting, tearing, and layering. It is between the holes of distorted plastic and styrofoam that his pieces evolve.

“D3” Mixed media on wood panel 71” x 49”

Instead of demanding that every piece be representational in nature, Roth has a conversation with his medium and tries to understand the way it changes as he modifies it. He finds meaning in the metamorphosis of the recycled materials rather than forcing the medium to conform to a concept. He does this by surrendering himself to the uncertainties of his method. Roth understands the process of each piece as an “improvised dance with the medium that leads to surprises and spontaneous effects”. With this philosophy, he rejects personal conceptual projections in an attempt to embrace the possible anomalies that present themselves in the transformations of his relief sculptures.

Thomas Roth studied art at Beckmans College of Art and Design in Stockholm, Sweden and has a background in Scandinavian art with over 300 awards in the advertising industry as an Art Director. His corporate commissions include Volvo, Kodak, Intel, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, and Visa while his abstract work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Art in Stockholm, Sweden as well as Verum Ultimum Art Gallery in Portland, Oregon. He is also displayed in the Four Season Hotel in Austin, Texas as a part of their permanent collection.

Allen Harrison "Recent Works"

Lois Lambert Gallery presents Allen Harrison’s newest work In this series of oil paintings on wooden panels Harrison continues his exploration of juxtaposing Buddhist imagery with photographs of natural images. Harrison’s combination of the two incongruous images forces the viewer to look beyond what may seem to be another abstract painting.

Harrison starts his process cutting and adhering different parts of Thangka paintings on to a wooden panel. Buddhist Thangka paintings are made on cotton or silk usually depicting a mandala, a Buddhist scene or deity. Following his visual instincts Harrison, collages the Buddhist imagery keeping the rhythm of the composition by using a fine pencil to draw in contoured lines into blank spaces. The result is a complex drawing of patterns and designs. Harrison then takes a photograph from his collection of sunsets or other natural imagery and projects it over the original composition using an overhead projector. This approach allows Allen to focus his energy on the aesthetic quality rather than dictating a meaning or message. At first glance his paintings look like an abstract version of a Turner or Delacroix, yet when looked at very closely and carefully you see the patterns from the Thangka paintings emerge through the brushstrokes.

“June” Oil on panel 48” x 48”

For Harrison it’s the engagement in this process that is most interesting to him. Allen credits his years in art school for giving him the ability to translate a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional plane. It is with this skill, honed throughout his life that he is able to let the process guide the productions. He views his art as a series of experiments. Allen explains, “The idea is to make abstract paintings in a different way, by putting two seemingly incongruous ideas, or images together. Part of this is a notion that if you understand what you are doing completely you are not pushing hard enough. I am most excited when I am a little uncertain of the eventual success of the painting.”

Allen Harrison has previewed his work extensively over the past 34 years, with over 25 exhibitions throughout the United States. Harrison displays in both private and public collections including but not limited to the collections of Architectural Digest Publishing Corporation, General Electric, 20th Century Fox, Lowes Corporation, BankAmerica Corporation, the Arco Collection and Goldman-Sachs in Los Angeles. In addition, Harrison’s work has also been seen San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Byer Museum of Art. Publications include Art In America, Artnews and the Los Angeles Times. In addition to his career as a painter, Harrison has taught painting and drawing at several California colleges over the past 39 years.