“Empty Space,” Los Angeles-based mixed media artist Pamela Smith Hudson’s debut exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery (CKG) will have its official opening on Saturday, February 18 with an artist’s reception from 5-7PM. The opening is concurrent with Frieze weekend in Los Angeles. CKG is located in the Bergamot Station Arts Center, which is hosting a sitewide event the same night with special programming for Frieze attendees and the general public (Frieze tickets/passes are not required)..
In her latest body of work for “Empty Space” – which presents an expanded use of encaustic painting – Smith Hudson continues her process of combining painting, printmaking, and collage to create abstract works that feel both universal and intimate. Just as her process involves layers upon layers, her imagery is existentially layered, suggesting windows into other spaces, floating worlds, overlapping portals that invite meditation. She says, “These dense textural terrains are made with marks, patterns, organic shapes, and markers to visually represent the physical and the metaphysical, the chaos and the stillness of our current times.”
Largely created during the isolation of the pandemic – during which time she lost a brother and other family members to Covid – this new work directly recognizes and explores Smith Hudson’s hometown of Los Angeles. It calls out its density, topography, homelessness, traffic, unease, and all the other external pressures of living in the city. Smith Hudson adds, “It also looks at the environment in a more global context, with deforestation, flooding, increased wildfires, melting glaciers, and polluted oceans – a cultural landscape of today’s world.”
The work is also inextricably tied to Smith Hudson’s personal relationship with Los Angeles. A lifelong resident, she grew up in Compton and recalls that her earliest memory was people running out onto the streets when they heard Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Playing a musical instrument was required in her household, and music became an inspiration for everything in her life and work. Her Afro-indigenous maternal grandmother, with whom she was very close, schooled her in diverse traditions (two pieces in the show, “Rain Dance 1” and “Rain Dance 2” are inspired by her). Smith Hudson entered UCLA as a biology major on a track for medical school, but was captivated by the cultural arts of the time, and the students she met who were pursuing those studies. She followed her instincts and graduated with a degree in Anthropology, having studied world cultures and interning at the Cultural History Museum, now the Fowler. She immersed herself in Los Angeles’ music scene, seeing shows and spending time with musicians – jazz, punk, funk, indie rock. Her life as an artist was a natural evolution. In addition to her fine art practice, Smith Hudson teaches encaustic painting at LACMA and Otis College of Art and Design’s extension program.
Image: “Gouge Away 15″ (2022) 8″x8” – Clay on clay panel with dry pigment
