Portrait in Phase

Deb Diehl, Jane Gotts, Phung Huynh, and Alexandra Wiesenfeld On view: November 8 – December 19, 2008 Reception: Saturday, November 8, 5-8 pm Postcard

Portrait in Phase features the work of four Los Angeles artists whose work explores the notion of time as it relates to portraiture. Through painting, photography, and video the viewer is encouraged to consider characteristics of time, such as its continuum, its passage, and the significance of its moments, as well as the role time plays in the creation of portraits.

Deb Diehl’s video projections are “live” self-portraits that are visually reminiscent of the silhouette portraits popular in the nineteenth century. This fluid self-portraiture defies the traditional concept of the portrait as a fixed image, while modern media and technology vie for attention with the bygone era evoked by the silhouette archetype.

Jane Gotts plays with portraiture and time in two ways in her work. Painting from live models, she purposefully folds the passage of time into her finished work by depicting the many environmental changes (lighting, positioning) inherent to the long sittings that a painted portrait requires. Her contemporary portraits also reference the tradition and style of Renaissance portraiture, which forces the viewer to consider “now” as they are simultaneously reminded of the “then” of fifteenth century Europe.

Phung Huynh’s work speaks to good times and bad, times past and present. Her paintings on wood depict age-old iconography from the artistic traditions of Asia as they have been appropriated by the pop culture of the Western world. For some viewers these images may evoke the loss and sorrow that often accompanies cultural assimilation, while others may take comfort in the romanticized notions that have made these borrowed signs and symbols so popular in the West.

Alexandra Wiesenfeld’s paintings are about both timelessness and the often highly charged “moment in time”. Her surreal landscapes convey a feeling of timelessness because they cannot be definitively placed geographically or historically. However, the figures that inhabit these landscapes live in the moment, as they appear to be poised at a precipice—a decision must be made, a giant leap taken—for these figures the time is “now”.

Deb Diehl Originally from Boston, Diehl earned an MFA in radio, television and film at Northwestern University. Diehl’s video projection takes a humorous poke at self-representation by combining modern technique with romanticized period portrait style. Referencing silhouette portraits popular in the 19th century, Diehl captures her own shadow as she attempts to hold a regal pose in real time. By combining live action with animation, Diehl presents self-portraiture as self-deception. Diehl's films and photographs have been shown individually and as collaborations in international venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Museum of Sound and Image, São Paolo, Brazil, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. She frequently shows her work in Los Angeles, most recently at the Armory Center for the Arts and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall.	Deb Diehl Silhouette Wall rear projected video/wall 18 x 12’
Jane Gotts Gotts earned her BFA at Cheltenham College of Art and Design in England. Gotts paints contemporary subjects with reference to the Renaissance, both in style and technique. Gott's subjects are ordinary people painted in ways once reserved for members of the upper echelons of society. Using live models, Gotts purposefully tracks and incorporates subtle lighting changes and subject repositioning that naturally occur during long sittings. In her portraits, real time and time past overlap on the canvas. Additionally, having worked for many years as a color designer in the animation field, Gotts is skilled at using color to evoke the mood and temperament of her subjects. Gotts has exhibited recently at Black Maria Gallery and the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts. To learn more about Jane Gotts's work visit www.janegotts.com	Jane Gotts Sara 2 oil on canvas, 16 x 20”
Phung Huynh Huynh earned a BFA at Art Center College of Design and an MFA at New York University. Her paintings on wood interweave conventional ideas about portraiture and caricature. Huynh thinks of portraiture not in terms of pictorial illusionism, but in terms of culture, politics, gender, social stereotype and voyeurism. Her work incorporates traditional iconography from the countries of Asia that has been usurped and commodified by North American culture; Chinese cherubs, lotus flowers, lucky fish, calligraphy and textile patterns are used to create complicated compositions that comment on cultural assimilation and identity. Her work has an element of humor but also highlights sensitive cultural issues, eliciting from the viewer a variety of responses and reactions, and one hopes, a thoughtful reflection on their own preconceptions and perspectives on the topic. Huynh has exhibited across the country and widely in the Los Angeles areas at venues including the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, Sam Lee Gallery, Gagosian Gallery, and UCLA’s Kerckhoff Art Gallery. To learn more about Phung Huynh's work visit www.samleegallery.com/htmls/PhungHuynh.htm	Phung Huynh Father Died oil on wood, 36 x 48”
Alexandra Wiesenfeld Born in Munich, Germany, Wiesenfeld earned a BFA at Pomona College and an MFA at Montana State University. Wiesenfeld's large-scale acrylic and oil on canvas paintings depict serene figures in off-kilter landscapes. These sometimes desolate landscapes are integral to the portrait as they evoke in the viewer curiosity and sympathy for the figure and a vaguely unsettling tension. The solitary figures, mostly children, seem positioned at the edge of an illusory world, suggesting dangerous physical and psychological precipices that must be faced. Wiesenfeld creates tension between the figure and the landscape and between memory and imagination. Wiesenfeld has taught at East Los Angeles College and the University of Iowa and exhibited nationally and internationally and in diverse venues locally including Track 16, the Happy Lion, the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts and the Millard Sheets Gallery. To learn more about Alexandra Wiesenfeld's work visit www.alexandrawiesenfeld.com	Alexandra Wiesenfeld Cliff oil on canvas, 16 x 14.5”