Linda-King_MOMENTO_AnotherYearInLA_March-April

Linda King

Memento

March 1 - April 30, 2023

Exhibition - Books (coming in April)

LINDA KING

My paintings are visually abstract but reference nature, contemporary culture and a sense of time and memory. The paintings are created with layers of poured paint, that are then edited down to an essential form or specific interaction. I combine very fluid movements of paint with hard-edged shapes and flat intense backgrounds, constantly shifting the viewer's eye until shape becomes negative and space becomes shape. My interests lie with the juxtaposition of boundaries that subvert perception.

The pours are multiple colors and different viscosities. The colors are derived from personal experience, what I see, what I react to. Sometimes they reference nature's colors; algae and moss, a storm coming in, burnt ground, the leaves changing. Other times, the colors are chosen as a visual response to the urban environment, contemporary fashion, billboards and advertisements. Color is a very strong focus of my work. I try to approach color as a means of discovery. This means that sometimes the colors picked are subtle and quiet, and other times very bold and assertive.

The pours are one component of creating the painting. The other major aspect is the editing of the pour. In my earlier work, when the pour was finished, taken as far as it could go, when it felt complete, I then looked to see what was essential for creating a specific mood or visual response. I used vintage ceramic and metal platters as stencils to edit the background and create different shapes. I placed the platters down on the areas that I wanted to save, traced around them and then painted out everything else. The platters relate to plants, nature, and biomorphic forms.

The earlier paintings I developed into a series that I ironically call "The Dining Room Series". The pours related to epic, romantic land/sky scapes, similar to Turner or the Baroque Period. The border acts as an ornate frame and the background refers to wall paper. The "wall paper" ranges from Victorian pattern to Sci-fi retro images. I was interested in juxtaposing the "idea" of romantic landscape with a more contemporary setting, exploring concepts of beauty, perception and cultural relationships.

The more recent paintings also use pours along with stencils/outlines from found objects but are developed in a back and forth process of adding and subtracting, pouring and sanding. These paintings seem to be about transition, transformation, memory, and time. There is a sense of the microscopic and the infinite, order and chaos, beginning and ending.

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Momento

Paintings