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Also at SOIL
in the Backspace:
Chauney Peck: How Does Grass Grow?
August 2006
Exploded View
Erica Bradbury, Margie Livingston, John Mills, Leah Nguyen, Tuan Nguyen,
Nicholas Nyland, Bill Wells
Just as an exploded
view diagram reveals the relationships of all the parts to a whole, such
is the goal with this exhibition: by exposing more of the “parts”
of an artist’s practice, the viewer will glean a fuller understanding
of what makes these seven artists tick. Traditionally, one expects an
artist to present an edited and homogenous body of work, whereas “Exploded
View” includes those tangents and side ventures that directly or
indirectly inform the main body of work. “Exploded View” includes
work that might not have otherwise left the studio or been shown in a
gallery setting (music, clothing designs, coloring books, etc).
Brian Wilson, skulls, flowers, and Tiger Girl (among others) populate
Erica Bradbury’s unselfconscious paintings and drawings. While
her larger paintings and installations are more abstract and engage painterly
issues and perceptual phenomenon, these small works perhaps reveal more
directly Erica’s artistic influences and sense of humor.
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Margie Livingston’s
rigorous abstractions consistently bear the title, Structure, which
slyly betrays the painting’s point of reference: often a tree branch
and string construction that she sets up in her studio. Her paintings
are built out of individual marks that correspond to discreet observations
of the light and color on the chosen subject matter. Margie will show
a “structure” from which she gathers information for her paintings.
Unlikely yet ubiquitous images removed from their context are coolly examined,
naked and bare, in John Mills’ paintings. Moving easily through
abstract and representational images, Mills exposes underlying patterns
and questions our assumptions about each. Included in “Exploded View”
are works which are less process-oriented, and whose imagery is rawer.
Leah Nguyen’s highly personal way of working yields pieces
that are almost always small in size but hint at the immense scale of
imagination: a campfire and coyote sculpted out of paper gives way to
the intricate patterns of tiny ink drawings, and her Self-portrait
as a Hag.
For Tuan Nguyen, drawing is like talking, extemporaneous and unencumbered
by the slower pace necessary to produce his paintings. Nguyen gives himself
free reign in his drawings, comics, and coloring books, one of which,
entitled Pathos Coloring Book, features a disturbing series of
everyday suffering.
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Complex, layered paintings
and large drawing installations characterize the main focus of Nicholas
Nyland’s work. However, the miscellany of drawings, paintings
and objects included in this show could be called productive digressions
in the studio.
Of all the artists included in “Exploded View”, Bill Wells’
artistic output spans the most extreme range between painstaking abstract
paintings and freewheeling figurative drawings. Like Tuan Nguyen, Bill
Wells’ prolific drawings and handmade calendars provide an outlet
for a torrent of ideas and images that their time and process intensive
painting practice would not accommodate. Wells’ drawings make hay
with pop culture references and are delightfully comical and idiosyncratic.
