Parallel Play & Collisions

Joyce Kohl, Nancy Kyes and Irena Raulinaitis On View: June 27 – July 31, 2009 Opening Reception Postcard Glendale New-Press Article Return to Brand Library Art Galleries Schedule page

Parallel Play & Collisions highlights new work by three Los Angeles area artists working in a variety of media including assemblage, sculpture, and printmaking. While diverse, these works overlap in their aesthetic and the use of found objects, creating a dialogue in mixed media. Artweek’s Previews Editor Debra Koppman describes the exhibition in the June 2009 issue:

"Kohl and Kyes consider their work to be an exploration of “contemporary artifacts,” though they address this idea in dramatically different ways. Kohl’s approach is stark, combining found steel—culled from agricultural and industrial sources—in her freestanding and wall-mounted sculptures. Raw remains of industrial artifacts are first reassembled and then treated with an application of adobe, at once softening the effect of the material and alluding to the ever-presence of the earth. The resulting abstractions refer back the material’s original use, while alluding to new interpretations.

While an interest in the use of found materials, Kyes’s aesthetic and approach are more baroque. Layers and layers of found bits and pieces are somewhat randomly smashed and woven together to create new hybrid forms. Synthesis as a process for creation becomes both method and concept in this work; the seeming dualities of randomness and pattern found in nature unite in the process and the construction of meaning.

Raulinaitis’s monoprints and collagraphs also incorporate found objects, processes of layering, and the re-creation of art from humble materials. The work literally focuses on the four seasons, thematically drawing one’s attention to the idea of change within repetition, and of the challenge of finding our small place in the cycle of nature."

Joyce Kohl (Altadena, CA) received her MFA at California State University, Fullerton and is a professor of art at California State University, Bakersfield. Kohl has completed numerous commissions and public art projects including those from the Los Angeles Metro for the Gold Line’s Claremont Station (to be completed in 2014), and the Cities of Santa Monica and Bakersfield. Kohl also also completed a collaborative project in Harare, Zimbabwe as part of her Fulbright award grant project. She has exhibited recently in local venues such as L.A. Artcore, Xiem Gallery, El Camino College, and the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Recent international exhibitions include the Exchange Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum and the International Exchange Exhibition in Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand. More information about Kohl’s work can be found on her website.	Joyce Kohl Moray Patchwork found objects & stabilized adobe, 4’ x 4’ x 18”
Nancy Kyes (South Pasadena, CA) is currently working toward her Master of Arts at California State University, Los Angeles and teaches theater arts at The Sequoyah School in Pasadena. In addition, she conducts art making and sculpture workshops for teachers and youth in a variety of venues in the Los Angeles area. In 2003-2004 Kyes was an artist-in-residence at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. She has exhibited her work widely in Southern California at venues including Santa Ana College, Angel’s Gate Center for the Arts, Pasadena City College, the Todd Madigan Gallery at California State University, Bakersfield, the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock. More information about Kyes' work can be found on her website.	Nancy Kyes black box #2 from blackbody radiation/DISH found objects woven, 48” x 24” x 92”
Irena Raulinaitis (Glendale, CA) was born in Lithuania and attended school in the French zone of occupation in Germany before moving with her family to the United States. A chemist by training, she is a member of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, the Pasadena Society of Artists, and the Los Angeles Art Association. Raulinaitis is a printmaker working in etching, collagraph, and monotype. After a long hiatus she is returning her attention to sculpture, in the form of carved soapstone. She has exhibited in juried shows across the country and locally at venues including the VIVA Gallery, the Korean Cultural Center, Gallery 825, and the Kellogg Art Gallery, Pomona. She is featured in the book Lithuanian Artists in North America (Chicago; Vilnius: Galerija: Ethnos, 1994). More information about Raulinaitis' work can be found on her website.	Irena Raulinaitis Devastation (Red) monoprint, 17” x 12 ¾”

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