ALIS Design+ Conference and Trade Fair, January 24 - 25 2024

I'm excited to announce that I have four paintings from my Absence and Presence series at the ALIS Design+ Conference and Trade Fair, January 24 - 25 in Los Angeles. I am exhibiting my work with DAC Art Consulting alongside works by Christina Kwan. I’m excited to share some photos of the installation below.

ALIS Design+ is a conference and trade fair where distinguished thought leaders from hotel ownership, investment, development, design, procurement, construction, architecture, and consultancy come together for a discussion on the industry’s future. Together, they engage in forward-looking conversations, diving into best practices and pioneering solutions that elevate creativity and ingenuity.

(Clockwise, beginning top left) Altadena Crest Trail, 2023; Sam Merrill Trail, 2023; Desert Trail, 2019; Diarmuid’s Farm, 2019

New Work for Indian Wells

I’ve been busy preparing for the Indian Wells Arts Festival, creating lots of new work to display for next month. I love participating in art fairs because it inspires me to paint and make new things since I know I have a venue to display my paintings in, and there is an upcoming deadline. The pressure is on! It makes me feel a bit like I’m back in art school painting like crazy in preparation for a critique, and I thrive in that kind of environment. I’ll slowly be posting new paintings online and on Instagram as the festival approaches. Excited that I’ve started to make some new desert inspired landscapes! Very new for me, and a departure from my infatuation with the color green.

A statement about the recent works:

My current practice is a paradox between absence and presence. 

Using watercolor or oil paint on paper, I distill a landscape down to its most essential elements and abstracted forms.  The negative shapes take on a prominent role in the paintings, often creating silhouettes of human figures enmeshed in the surrounding landscape.  Painterly gestures and mark-making techniques are juxtaposed with highly-rendered flora. 

The process is exclusively additive, as each mark on the stark white surface cannot be erased or undone.  The paintings allude to an influence of Chinese landscape painting, especially in their rhythms and intentional use of blank space, or “nothingness”.  They convey “inner landscapes of the mind” more so than accurate, external ones-  they are reflections of sanctuary and inner spirit.  The paintings seek to highlight a sense of permanence within nature and the spiritual world, contrasted with the temporal quality of human existence. 

The Other Art Fair

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support and see my paintings this past weekend at The Other Art Fair! What a whirlwind! I am so grateful for all the connections, new faces, and lovely artists I got the chance to meet while at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

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Thursday was such a crazy rush- with my car and a van packed with all my paintings, display supplies, and tools, I drove from Orange County up to Santa Monica. I arrived at 10am to prepare and set up for the VIP opening reception that evening. However, I arrived to find that the painting crew had not finished painting my walls! I waited an additional two hours to begin hanging as the painters finished up the walls and we gave them ample time to dry. It took about 5 hours to hang and prepare everything for the opening.

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The Private View opening reception was sold out and packed with curators, gallery representatives, collectors, and art lovers of all kinds. I got an overwhelming response to my paintings and made some great connections. My work “Reef” was also a part of Kate Bryan’s “31 Women” exhibition- read my previous post for more information- this mini exhibition within the fair was a big hit. I also found out that I was the youngest person exhibiting at the Fair this Fall. I couldn’t believe it!

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Friday was just as busy as Thursday night, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to so many people in depth about my work. Most people were very intrigued and amazed at the amount of texture, alternative materials, and three-dimensional elements within my paintings. Friday evening was Friends and Family evening, and I was thrilled to see so many people I love come out to support me, see my paintings, and enjoy a fun evening socializing and looking at art.

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The rest of the weekend was more mellow, and I could relax by my work and enjoy chatting with many interesting visitors, art lovers, art students, families, and more. I was also thrilled about getting to connect with some of the other artists in the fair! I know I will be keeping in touch with many and am excited about new artistic friendships.

I am grateful for the works that found new homes and for such an overwhelmingly positive, loving, emotional, and moving response to my paintings. I am newly inspired to paint and can’t wait to start my new body of work. I am so thankful the fair has given me newfound energy, enthusiasm, and inspiration to bring back into my studio.

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31 Women

I am excited to announce that I have been selected as one of the 31 artists presenting work for Kate Bryan’s ‘31 Women’ exhibition onsite at The Other Art Fair next week!

Drawing inspiration from Peggy Guggenheim's landmark 1943 show 'Exhibition by 31 Women' and marking our 31st global edition, The Other Art Fair is dedicating a section of the Fall LA fair to rising female art stars.

Curated by Kate Bryan, Arts Broadcaster and Head of Collections for Soho House and Co. globally, 31 Women marks the 31st edition of The Other Art Fair and the 75th year anniversary of the iconic exhibition of the same name at Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery, Art of This Century.

31 women takes the form of a small exhibition within the main context of the fair, highlighting one work each by 31 female artists who are all participating in The Other Art Fair LA. This mini salon draws together sculpture, collage, neon, photography, figurative and abstract painting in the same inclusive spirit of Guggenheim’s original show.

The original 31 women took place in January 1943 at Guggenheim’s New York gallery. It was the first exhibition of its kind to highlight women artists who were largely absent from mainstream gallery and museum shows. Over 7 decades later permanent collections in museums across Europe and North America have on average only 3-5% artwork by female artists. At best you can hope to see women’s artwork around 30% of the time in a progressive gallery or institution, in most it is often far less. This exhibition is therefore part homage to Guggenheim, one of the greatest art patrons of the twentieth century, but it is also part protest against the continued male dominance of the art world today.

The Other Art Fair

I'm thrilled to announce that my work has been accepted to show at The Other Art Fair this October! The show runs from October 25th-28th at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.  Partnered with Saatchi Art, The Other Art Fair is the leading artist fair to discover and buy art direct from the very best emerging artistic talent.  Stay tuned for updates and my progress in the coming months.  Read more about the fair and find ticketing information on their website at http://la.theotherartfair.com