Origins + Intersections

Joe Davidson, Katina Desmond, Marisa Murrow, Ryan Romero On View: April 10 - May 14, 2010 Reception: Saturday, April 10, 6-9 p.m. Postcard Photos from the Opening Reception Glendale News Press Review Return to Brand Library Art Galleries Schedule page

Origins + Intersections, the new exhibition at Brand Library Art Galleries, showcases the work of four Los Angeles area artists working in a variety of media, including sculptural installation, photography, oil on canvas, oil on silver gelatin prints and mixed media. The themes they explore in their art are as varied as their means of expression yet they all have their origins in the innate desire to understand and define what it means to be human. As this question is pursued by the artists we find their themes intersecting at various junctures: the natural world and consumer culture, how to sustain both the body and the mind, landscapes of memory and the physical landscape in which we live. These individual lines of inquiry and the ways in which they overlap pose many questions, making this a compelling exhibition that promises to engage gallery visitors.

Joe Davidson (Los Angeles) earned a BFA in sculpture at the University of Massachusetts and an MFA in sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. Whether they are made of everyday materials like scotch tape, or are assembly line inspired replications of everyday consumer objects—as his toiletry bottle castings are—Davidson’s sculptures, installations and two-dimensional works reference the mundane aspects of daily life and ask the viewer to contemplate the way repetitive chores and consumerism impact the quality of that life. Beyond their deeper meaning, these works are also simply a pleasure to look at. One can't help but be amazed that such subtle and beautiful representations of Southern California’s mountain ranges can be created out of the painstaking and delicate layering of a material as unremarkable as scotch tape. In 2009 Davidson was awarded the prestigious C.O.L.A. Fellowship by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and his work has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, Artillery Magazine, Artweek and San Francisco's SF Weekly. Recent solo shows in the Los Angeles area include Jill Thayer Fine Art, Gallery 825, Phantom Galleries, and the Lawrence Asher Gallery. His work was shown alongside that of internationally known artists such as Tara Donovan in the exhibition “UpCycling: Recuperating Past Lives” presented by the Tatar Gallery and Los Angeles’ Architecture and Design Museum. More information about Davidson’s work can be found on his website.	Joe Davidson Untitled Landscape toiletry bottles cast in flexible urethane (installation view)
Katina Desmond (Pasadena) was raised in Topanga Canyon and studied art at Otis Art Institute and UCLA. A versatile artist, Desmond also applies her artistic sensibility to her commercial graphic design work. Recently, Desmond has been focused on creating works using a hybrid technique that combines photography and painting. She begins by taking photographs which are hand printed in the darkroom. She then applies oil paints to the surface of the silver gelatin prints, transforming her images of the real world. In Origins + Intersections Desmond is showing a new body of work for the first time. “Street Pieces” seizes on the abstract, ethereal qualities captured in photographs of the urban environment. Textures and patterns are highlighted, resulting in striking color-saturated abstractions that are somehow familiar—reminiscent of something, though we cannot be sure what. This dichotomy engages the viewer by making them ask “what am I really seeing?” and “where have I seen it before?”. Desmond is an active member of the Pasadena Society of Artists and a founding member of the 4260 Black & White Photography Guild. Her work has recently been exhibited at A Studio Gallery in Studio City, VIVA Gallery, Mainstream Gallery in Burbank and Daniel Saxon Gallery in West Hollywood. More information about Desmond’s work can be found on her website.	Katina Desmond Time Zone oil on silver gelatin print photograph, 19" x 13"
Marisa Murrow (Los Angeles) earned a BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. Murrow’s passion is for painting the contemporary landscape. Her oil on canvas paintings often depict ocean front trailer park communities, a subject matter that allows her to explore issues of mobility, security and shifting social landscapes. The perspective in her paintings is always taken from above so that the viewer looks down on a rhythmic pattern of rooftops that is in contrast to the serene expanse of ocean that recedes to the horizon. Murrow reminds us that in our society “trailer parks are commonly perceived as gritty, unpretentious and rather low income means of shelter.” These fragile and sometimes shabby homes crouching as close as possible to the edge of the Pacific Ocean speak to the universal human desire for a connection to nature and its beauty and power. When we see this juxtaposition of the modest and the grand, we can’t help but be reminded that often socio-economic conditions prevent people from establishing this connection with the natural world: these trailer dwellers are living in paradise, a sense that Murrow conveys deftly using warm colors and light. McNish Gallery at Oxnard College presented a solo exhibition of Murrow’s work in early 2010; other solo exhibitions include Carina Cellars in Los Olivos and Topo Ranch in Venice. Her work has also been shown at the Los Angeles Art Association’s Gallery 825, Schomberg Gallery and the California Heritage Museum. Murrow participated in Tarfest at the Korean Cultural Center and the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, where she was an award winner. More information about Murrow’s work can be found on her website.	Marisa Murrow Lines of Communication oil on canvas
Ryan Romero (Glendale) has a BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His successful career as a commercial photographer has included work for Sony ATV/Ba-Da-Bing Records, The Advocate, Los Angeles Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Five images from his Buckweed Fire series that lyrically and poignantly captured the aftermath of the devastating California fire were published in the 2008 Communication Arts Photo Annual—a distinguished honor. The theme of the new photographs that Romero will exhibit for the first time in Origins + Intersections is “memory”. A self-described “music geek”, Romero’s images will be record album-sized and displayed in plastic sleeves similar to what the aficionado uses to protect their cherished vinyl. This association between the album and the image speaks to Romero’s feeling that a photograph can also be “played” at will and its recorded content shared. The work poses the question, is it possible to capture and record the complexities of memory in a single image? For Romero, each image is more than its apparent subject; it is a surrogate for his experience of a certain time and place and a repository for all the attendant thoughts and feelings related to that time. The photographs are striking, intriguing, beautiful and evocative but even more importantly they are destined to carry the artist’s memories into the future. More about Romero’s work can be found on his website.	Ryan Romero Untitled 6 archival ink jet print photographs, 13” x 19”

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