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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM – GALLERY 1061 OPENS IN INGLEWOOD, CA
INAUGURAL EXHIBIT: MICHAEL COLE, PAINTINGS & WORKS ON PAPER
Address: 1061 South La Brea Avenue, Inglewood, California 90301
Contact: Saturday, March 31, 2007
6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Exhibition: March 31, 2007 – April 5, 2007
Please phone for gallery hours or appointment
Opening Reception
The Joie of Art, Inc. presents Michael Cole, Paintings & Works on Paper, and hosts the opening reception Saturday night, March 31, 2007, 6:00 - 11:00 p.m., at Gallery 1061, 1061 S. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90301. Meet the artist, enjoy live jazz by Tim McLane & Friends trio and gourmet food by Kirby’s. Below is a review of the show.
Review
Outside the mainstream, a new gallery emerges in Inglewood and fittingly celebrates its opening with a bold, personal statement by a defiantly individual artist. Michael Cole, Paintings & Works on Paper, surveys 20 years of work, ranging from seemingly classical figure studies that subtly reveal character and emotion, to surprisingly textured, brilliantly colored canvases that apply the artist’s unique vision to human relationships, landscape and abstraction.  The Three Figures series explores identity, insecurity and the arrogance that overcompensates. The artist playfully covered the first canvas (pictured above) with used, bent nails gathered from a construction site, mixed with gravel and gesso to form a surface that expresses conflict, pain, confusion and penetration. With this innovative approach to matter painting, Cole preserves the clarity of his color by allowing the surface to harden before applying paint. He describes the technique as painting on “prepared” canvas, an analogy to modern composers like John Cage who “prepare” their musical instruments with extraneous objects before playing.
Paintings from the Midwest Suite use natural materials, usually crumbled clay, to simulate and celebrate the rich earth in the artist’s home region. In this series, the human relation with the soil is comfortable and harmonious. The patchwork of plow lines suggests quilting, a reference to farm life and American folk art, enhanced by the natural irregularity that arises from painting on the prepared surface. Varied greens and sunny yellow and orange hues suggesting growth and harvest are balanced with earth tones that reveal brown as a fresh and exciting color.  In 1999, Cole moved from Chicago to L.A. The transition is memorialized in a painting of that title, executed with pencil and acrylic on a found piece of foamboard glued to canvas. The geometry of the top half reflects the grid on which the city of Chicago is layed out. Anyone who has tried to find their way in L.A. will recognize the twisted, scrambled pattern into which the grid devolves at the bottom. The artist’s excitement at discovering Southern California’s ocean, deserts, mountains and valleys is evident in paintings like Mojave (pictured above), a highly abstracted desert landscape that contrasts cracked rock and desiccated soil through intensified color and an irresistibly tactile surface.
Since 1989, Cole has also experimented with pure abstraction in painting and drawing. Some of his abstract pieces are organic, suggesting forces of nature and mystical places, but even the geometric pieces have a natural warmth that reflects the artist’s temperament.
Cole is inspired by experience, dreams, reflection and studies. He embraces his African American heritage but refuses to be limited by preconceptions or stereotypes, saying:
My art is a work in progress, like my life. I enjoy talking about the work, but resist labeling it with a “style.” I don’t care to pigeonhole myself, since the world already does this and doesn’t need my help. As an African American person, I was born into a culture that tries to tell me who I am and who I cannot be. The various entities known as the media churn out a constant stream of negative imagery that limits my humanity. Through my art, I come to know my humanity for myself.Contact:The Joie of Art, Inc. Pamela Prudhomme, curator Phone: (213) 400-2107 Email:
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Websites: www.thejoie.net and http://www.gallery1061productions.com More information about this event and The Joie of Art, Inc., as well as driving and public transit directions to Gallery 1061 are available at: http://www.experiencela.com/Calendar/eventmore.asp?key=12368 By ExperienceLA.com |
