The Materiality of Color

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Jack Chipman, Mike Coulson, Porntip Sangvanich, Mahara T. Sinclaire, and Tracey Weiss On View: February 21 - March 27, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 21, 5-8 p.m. Return to Brand Library Art Galleries Schedule page Postcard Photos from the Opening Reception

The Materiality of Color features the work of five Los Angeles area artists whose work, despite being in a variety of media including clay, paint and photography, is united by the utilization of color. Color is one of many tools at the artist’s disposal, and its use materializes differently and in fascinating ways depending on the individual artist and the media in which they work. Whether using color as a means of expressing ideas, or color as a formal mechanism, or simply as a means to aesthetic delight, the skill, ingenuity and enthusiasm of the five artists showcased in this exhibition is apparent.

Jack Chipman (Venice, CA) holds a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and undertook graduate study at the San Francisco Art Institute. Chipman subscribes to the “art for art’s sake” principle and feels that works of art can make statements and convey meaning based solely on aesthetic merits. Works on display in this exhibition will include Chipman’s New Totems series as well as his acrylic on canvas paintings. The abstract paintings merge either geometric elements or a bamboo motif with a looser, less predictable paint application, creating eye catching contrasts in texture and shape. He describes his color palette as “intuitive” and these color choices in some cases highlight contrasts and in others harmony. Chipman exhibited in a two-person show at Brand Library Art Galleries in 1973 and we are pleased to be showing his work here again. He has exhibited widely, including solo shows at Orlando Gallery, Los Angeles, the Long Beach Museum of Art, and the Angels Gate Cultural Center. Chipman is also an art scholar and the author of Collector's Encyclopedia of California Pottery as well as numerous other publications on the subject of American art pottery. More information about Chipman’s work can be found on his website: www.jackchipmanart.com.	Jack Chipman Rite of Passage Totem mixed media, 84 ¾” by 2 ½” Defining Moment Totem mixed media, 88” by 3 ½”
Mike Coulson (Manhattan Beach, CA) was born in Idaho and raised in Southern California. He has a degree in economics from the University of California, Irvine. He is a self-taught photographer who for the last several years has been pursuing his commercial and artistic photography full-time. Coulson calls the body of work on display in this exhibition his “painting with light” series, in which he creates “a whole new medium for abstract expression”. These arresting abstractions are created using light sources that are often taken for granted and his own technique of camera manipulation. Despite what the viewer might suppose, Coulson does not manipulate the images digitally. The bright colors and sense of movement make these one-of-a-kind works of art both compelling, curious, and a joy to look at. His work has been exhibited at The Stone Bar in Hollywood, Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, Gallery Revisited, Los Angeles, and the Barnsdall Arts Park; he was also honored with the Buenaventura Art Association’s Top Photographer of the Year award in 2007.	Mike Coulson Pure Fear c-print
Porntip Sangvanich, (Los Angeles, CA), originally from Thailand, earned undergraduate degrees at Silapakon University, Bangkok, and Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles. She also holds an MFA in ceramics with honors from Otis. Sangvanich says that her “pursuit of impeccable craftsmanship lends integrity and honesty to [her] work”. Finished pieces are notable for their experimental nature and their embrace of new forms and unconventional ways of working with clay. On display in this exhibition will be her Building Blocks series. These complex kiln fired pieces sport bright colors and are comprised of clean shapes combined to create elaborate three dimensional wall and pedestal pieces. Sangvanich was on the faculty of Otis College until 1996 and now maintains a productive studio in Los Angeles. She has exhibited extensively in California and at many international locations; her work is in the collections of Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Ichon World Ceramic Center, South Korea, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her work has also been featured in publications such as Ceramics Monthly magazine, Color & Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000, and Otis: Nine Decades of Los Angeles Art. More information about Sangvanich’s work can be found on her website: www.porntipclayart.com/index.html	Porntip Sangvanich Building Blocks Series earthenware, 22.5 x 18.5 x 4.5”
Mahara T. Sinclaire (North Hollywood, CA) studied at California State University (CSU), Santa Cruz, and earned a BA in studio art from CSU, Davis and an MFA at CSU, Los Angeles. Sinclaire’s large scale paintings on unstretched canvas are a sly departure from the American social realist mural tradition that they bring to mind. Sinclaire’s works are vibrantly colorful and expressionistic; in the artist’s own words, they are “playful, yet [have] hearth-felt pithy substance”. Despite the comedic elements, the paintings pluck many emotional chords as at their core they are about the vulnerability of the human condition. Often created from a clear feminist perspective, the theme of shared human experience in the context of societal mores and expectations is evident. As with all her works, Polaroid self-portraits are the basis for the characters’ faces. Exhibited for the first time in this exhibition is the new 8 by 34 foot work Party Life which depicts the emotional states experienced by the main character as she prepares for, attends, and is ultimately disappointed by, a party—an event that we all know often does not live up to the expectations of fun and frivolity placed upon it. Sinclaire has been honored with artist residencies at numerous renowned institutions including the Vermont Studio Center, Studios Midwest at the Galesburg Civic Art Center in Illinois, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, the Blue Mountain Center in New York, and at Montalvo in Saratoga, California. Sinclaire also teaches drawing and painting at Pasadena City College and Glendale Community College and her work has been exhibited extensively in Southern California.	Mahara Sinclaire On the Red Line pastel on paper, 60 x 68”
Tracey Weiss (Redondo Beach, CA) earned a BFA at San Jose State University and an MFA at California State University, Los Angeles. Intrigued by the imposed dichotomy between arts and crafts, Weiss’s ceramic sculptures question assumptions about materials and their properties as well as the artist’s role and what it means “to craft”—to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity (Merriam Webster). Much of Weiss’s ceramic sculpture is in a trompe l’oeil style that gives pause to the viewer; despite all appearances these “paintings” are not paintings at all, but are sculptures of stretched canvases and paint, with visible stretcher bars and ragged canvas edges. Thus “paintings” are allowed to show and celebrate their sculptural qualities which are often overlooked, and the material clay proudly proclaims its ability to masquerade as paint, canvas, and wood. It is a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking body of work that is aesthetically enhanced by its lively color and variety of textures. Weiss teaches ceramics at Cerritos College and has exhibited recently in the Los Angeles area at G-3 Gallery in North Hollywood, Blue 7 Gallery in Santa Monica, the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, and the Ink and Clay juried exhibition at Kellogg University Art Gallery, Pomona. More information about Weiss’s work can be found on her website: www.zhibit.org/traceyweiss.	Tracey Weiss Red Pixels (detail) ceramic, multiple 10 x 10” panels

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