Perfectly Imperfect
Artwork by:
Barbara Kerwin
Mike Vegas
Sandra Vista
Curated by: Jennifer Faist
Gallery Director & Founder: Trace Johansson
Live music by Grammy musician Randy Ray Mitchell, Tisa Adamson, & special Jazz performance by Brian Duncan.
Exhibition on view May 5 – May 26, 2018
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 5, 6-9pm
NELAart Second Saturday: Saturday, May 12, 6-9pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, May 26, 6-9pm
TAJ • ART
1492 Colorado Boulevard
Eagle Rock, CA 90041
Perfectly Imperfect brings together the abstract artwork of three Los Angeles-area artists. Using process and structure, each artist, in their own way, infuses regularity with randomness. On the spectrum from austere geometry to brushy, organic abstractions, these works side more in the direction of organization rather than chaos, yet still not so rigid as ruler-straight lines and compass-perfect curves. The modest variances of hand or chance break that perfection with small differences or variations that are just slightly off.
Barbara Kerwin uses the vertical stripe in her paintings. In her Barcode series, parallel vertical lines are at varied, irregular intervals, breaking the harmony into coded patterns. Edges are taped, yet seepage here and there makes evidence the handmade nature of these as opposed to the barcodes printed on commercial products. In her Tape Paintings series, she also undermines the pristine taped edge by using the tape itself as the stripe, with color painted on top of it and embedding it into the surface of the painting. The process of pulling up and laying down the tape lines introduces irregularities in the edges and the stops and starts of each strand.
Mike Vegas uses spray paint on canvas in a graffiti-style, layered stenciling process. Patterns incorporate intervals of chevrons, arcs, and diagonal voids forming diamond shapes. He hand cuts paper stencils that gradually disintegrate, altering the imagery as they degrade. This introduces sporadic imperfections, seeding potential redundancy with little bits of nuance. The sprayed layers are slightly off register and fuzzy overspray blurs boundaries, subverting the crisply delineated shapes of the stencil.
Sandra Vista uses the process of laying down scores of zipper parts in rows or stripes with gel medium and acrylic paint on wood panels, each work consisting of over 2,500 zipper tabs individually applied. While employing the repetition of machine-made parts, the process of hand laying the pieces results in lines that waiver and lean, and gravity and friction play with the positioning of each of the pull tabs as they fall from the slider. The labor-intensive and emotive nature of the work lends a feminine air to the masculine industrial medium employed.
While visually diverse, the works of each artist in the show embody the beauty and richness of unresolved tensions. They break the rules just a little bit to show their humanity and invite contemplation of difference in general.
More information
TAJ • ART | https://www.tajartinc.com/
A portion of proceeds are given to help animals through animal charities.
Image: Left to right; Mike Vegas, Ghost Town (detail), 2016, acrylic on wood, 36 x 48 inches; Barbara Kerwin, Bar Codes (diptych) (detail), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches each; Sandra Vista, King of the Gypsies (detail), 2017, zipper tabs, gel medium and acrylic paint on wood panel, 14 x 11 inches.
