Natural Worlds

Erika Lizée, Joe Merrell, Charla Puryear, Andrea Raft, Arpine Shakhbandaryan and Jill Sykes On View: January 10 - February 13, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 10, 5-8 p.m. Postcard Photos from the Opening Reception Return to Brand Library Art Galleries Schedule page

Natural Worlds features the work of six Los Angeles area artists whose work is anchored by relationships to the natural world. These artists find inspiration in both micro and macrocosms of our planet. Erika Lizée and Jill Sykes works depict the intricacies of foliage and plant life while Arpiné Shakhbandaryan shows us the earth marked by geo-political boundaries. Joe Merrell’s video captures the natural world in unexpected ways, making us see nature through the artist’s distinct lens. Andrea Raft’s collaged canvases incorporate the photographs of Aaron Sedway and for Charla Puryear nature is a partner in each piece she creates using frottage to transfer textures and surfaces to her canvases. Through drawing, painting, collage, and video the viewer is invited to reconsider the world in which we live and to see and appreciate the detail and meaning that these artists so adeptly expose.

Erika Lizée earned a BFA from the University of North Carolina and an MFA from California State University, Northridge. Lizée works in multi-media including painting, drawing and installation. Her work investigates the relationship between thought and experience embodied by the juxtaposition of intangible and tangible forms. The graphite on paper drawings on view in this exhibition render plant forms that are ethereal and evocative. Lizée has exhibited throughout the United States and widely in Southern California at venues such as Angels Gate Cultural Center, The Brewery, Topanga Canyon Gallery, and the Palos Verdes Art Center. She has taught at California State University, Northridge and currently teaches at Moorpark Community College. More information about Lizée’s work can be found on her website: www.erikalizee.com	Erika Lizée The Illusion of an Ephemeral Observation graphite on paper, 4 x 5”
Joe Merrell graduated from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and earned his MFA in Film at California Institute of the Arts. Merrell focuses on experimental film and video installations; he begins projects with images, out of which grow concepts and meaning. His affinity for the possibilities inherent in the technical aspects of film and video is demonstrated in the interplay of technical form and visual content in his finished works. His work has been shown internationally, most recently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Found Gallery in Silverlake and at numerous film festivals including DigitalArt.la, Viewmaster Festival (New York), Streaming Festival (Netherlands), and Antimatter Film Festival (Victoria, British Columbia). In this exhibition he will be showing new work as well as mounted stills. More information about Merrell’s work can be found on his website: uhhuhohyeah.com	Joe Merrell Fire, San Bernadino video still
Charla Puryear originally from Washington D.C, earned a BFA at Brown University and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2004 she was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. Puryear has developed a painting method that allows her to connect directly with the natural world. She employs frottage, in which canvas is draped over an element of the landscape and rubbed with paint to transfer textures to the canvas which are the foundation for works she then completes in the studio. Works like Desert Floor can be read as vast landscapes, abstractions, or as the detailed views of the natural world that are their underpinning. Puryear describes her work as a “way of partnering with rock and trees, and honoring them by amplifying their voices.” Puryear has exhibited extensively in New York City and as a recent transplant to the West Coast at the M. Hanks Gallery in Santa Monica and Artpeace Gallery in Burbank.	Charla Puryear Desert Floor oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 90”
Andrea Raft is a member of many notable art associations, including Women Painters West, Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art, and the Collage Artists of America. Raft works in mixed media, using acrylic and oil paints and traditional paper collage materials to create works of art that reflect her abiding interest in Asian art and Eastern philosophies. The body of work on display in this exhibition is unique in that they are a collaboration with her son Aaron Sedway, an accomplished photographer. Taking Sedway’s photographs of the natural world as the base for her canvas, Raft applies paint and collage materials to create a new hybrid work that is evocative of both mother and son’s love of the outdoors and the beauty detailed in nature. These works seem to tell a story, and Raft herself describes them as “an intricate narrative interwoven with nature’s own.” Her work has been exhibited extensively in the Northern California area she used to call home, including at Peter Steynberg Gallery, Lauryn Taylor Fine Art, and the San Luis Obispo Art Center. More information about Raft’s work can be found on her website: www.andrearaftstudio.com.	Andrea Raft Ming Jade mixed media with photography by Aaron Sedway
Arpine Shakhbandaryan is an emerging artist based in Glendale, California. Her undergraduate degree in biological sciences with a minor in studio art from USC reflects her dual interests in nature and art. She is currently completing a master’s degree in public health at USC and continues to create works of art that reflect her Armenian heritage but speak to fundamental values and ideas shared by people from many cultures. Shakhbandaryan works with natural materials like wood and gold leaf to create map based images which highlight the contrast between the natural world and the arbitrary boundaries imposed upon it. In 2006 she was commissioned to complete a large-scale mural at St. Peter Armenian Church Youth Ministries’ Center in Glendale. She has exhibited her work at Glendale Community College, the Baldwin Park Performing Arts Center and in association with many Armenian-themed events, including Armenian Culture Week at UCLA and Armenian Cultural Day at the University of Southern California. More information about Shakhbandaryan’s work can be found on her website: www.artbyarpine.com.	Arpiné Shakhbandaryan Spirit acrylic and gold leaf on wood, 36 x 36”
Jill Sykes studied art at Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, The Academy of Art and Lone Mountain College, San Francisco, and the Santa Monica School of Design, Art & Architecture. Sykes oil on canvas paintings depict a realm between figuration and abstraction. Working with enlarged and closely cropped images of foliage and plant life, high contrast colors, and layers of translucent paint, Sykes creates sensuous and inviting canvases that allow us to contemplate the negative space between leaves and branches as well as the elegance and energy of the natural forms themselves. Her images convey both movement and mood. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Sykes has been exhibiting in the area for many years with solo shows at Angels’ Ink Gallery, Red Door Studio, Roberts Art Gallery, and the Angels Gate Cultural Center. With a studio at the Brewery complex, Sykes has also played an active roll in organizing the semi-annual Brewery Art Walk. More information about Sykes’s work can be found on her website: www.jillsykes.com.	Jill Sykes Joss oil on canvas, 16 x 16”

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