Another fantastic night at the gallery. Opening reception for Ling-An’s show, Everything Is Stitching Together Simultaneously, had a wonderful turnout. The ArtScene preview brought many people from outside of Los Angeles. A few even traveled from San Francisco to see the show! Congrats Ling-An! Oh, and the Chinese dinner afterwards was delicious! 
Lorenzo’s show officially closed on Sunday, 5/23. We had really wonderful responses for his body of work “by Deborah Calderwood”. This week we are installing a new show with Fang Ling-An, who just happens to be my old schoolmate from Taiwan. In the photo above you can see her using traditional Chinese embroidering technique on untraditional media. Exhibition details and more photos:
May 29 – June 27, 2010
CB1 Gallery proudly presents its first solo exhibition of the work of artist Fang Ling-An, Everything is Stitching Together Simultaneously. Deeply aware of her family’s historic and turbulent journey from Mainland China to Taiwan, Fang Ling-An has consciously reflected upon issues of ‘displacement’ and sense of ‘belonging’ that is common to most Chinese immigrants. As a result, her pieces center on issues of migration, displacement, tradition and identity. The show opens on May 29, 2010 and closes on June 27, 2010. A reception for the artist will be held at the gallery on Saturday, May 29, 2010, 5 – 8 p.m.
Convinced that artists have missions, Chicago-based artist Fang Ling-An’s quest is to develop and resurrect Chinese philosophical and aesthetic views that are set in a contemporary framework. “Determining what the true merits of Chinese traditions and philosophies are is something Chinese artists must decide for themselves and transmit to the rest of the world. I want to make art a tool to revive culture, and hope it will enable Chinese to become conscious about their heritage again.”
The work in the upcoming show reflects on the artist’s continuing exploration of how traditional Chinese culture has overlapped into contemporary American culture and of how the East meets and blends into the West. Using materials ranging from industrial tarp, silk and gold thread to silkscreen, Fang Ling-An experiments with their application onto the traditional Chinese handicraft and technique of embroidery. In Everything is Stitching Together Simultaneously, the embroidered pieces are perfectly stitched highlighting every minuscule detail and figure. While only a few pieces by the artist show this ‘perfect’ handwork, most of her other pieces will be showing a more abstract side, which, intriguingly, stand in stark contrast to the perfect images.
Fang Ling-An is a Chinese-American artist born in Taipei (Taiwan) and now living in Chicago. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Temple University, Tyler School of Art (BFA, 2003) and also the University of Illinois in Chicago (MFA, 2005). Her work has been exhibited in numerous national and international institutions, including Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), Artspace (New Haven, CT), DIVA International Video Art Fair (Miami, FL), City of Nanjing Art Center for Painting and Sculptures (China), CAMAC Centre D’art (France) and the Media Art Festival at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Art (Armenia).
Exhibition essay by Manu S. Shetty (PDF)
Yeah. Another post about the gallery and not one single post about knitting, yet. The truth is that I haven’t found a pattern I liked for the washcloth. I thought about just doing a checkered pattern, but that would be just too boring. Then work just happened. I think I am going to dig up the books “The Tap Dancing Lizard” and “Enchanted Knitting” and find an interesting chart, and just go for it.
Time does fly by so fast. We took down “Axis Mundi” to prepare for the installation of Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia’s “by Deborah Calderwood”. Here are some images and the writeup for the exhibition:
Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia in his studio.
CB1 Gallery is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of the work of artist Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia. The paintings and works on paper titled “by Deborah Calderwood” are based on found childhood drawings Deborah Calderwood made when she was eleven years of age. The show opens on April 24, 2010 and closes on May 23, 2010. A reception for the artist will be held at the gallery on Saturday, April 24, 2010, 5 – 8 p.m.
Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia’s work is informed by multiple sources ranging from personal anecdotes to art-historical and ethnographic motifs. He usually works on multiple bodies of work within the same timeframe, each with its own content and formal qualities that are distinct from each other.
As the eleven-year old creator of the drawings upon which these works are based, Deborah Calderwood’s name is painted onto most of the works, thus honoring and complicating their authorship. These works are emotionally and psychologically charged as Deborah grew up to be the woman the artist married, Deborah Hurtado Segovia. Each work directly borrows from the found drawing’s pictured subject while amplifying their formal qualities through process, media, color and composition.
Born in Júarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, the artist graduated with a BA from UCLA in 2003 and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2007. He is one of the Graduate Fine Arts alumni featured in the exhibition, “The Story of O”, on view at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design, from April 10 – June 5, 2010. He lives with his wife and son in Los Angeles where he also maintains his studio.
One of Lorenzo's weaving pieces, Papel tejido. 120" x 120"
