K. Imperial Fine Art is pleased to present Cusp, its third solo show of the work of Lorene Anderson.
Anderson has a mastery of layers. Her works comprise of up to a dozen acrylic paintings on top of one another, each informing the next and each providing a glimpse of its predecessor. Each layer is a reaction or conversation with the previous layer, showing the history of revision, exploration and repetition in the painting.
Historically, Lorene’s work has touched on themes of shifting space: air currents, the cosmos (spectral analysis/ subatomic particles/ matter), wifi, mobile data, and especially light and sound. Her work explores what exists between the eye and what is being observed; turning the invisible into something visible.
The translucent layers of lines and shapes simultaneously exist on top, in between, and underneath, while visually combining to create a joint imagery. This shift of figure/ground creates an instability and references the surge of information in daily life and layering of history and passage of time, the physics of light and matter, as well as simultaneous, multiple states of existence. Moments are frozen in each layer of the painting, it’s a way to process and illustrate change, metamorphosis, journey.
Expanding on these themes, Cusp explores the current shifting political and biological events – the tumultuous transition of power and science. As some layers in these works were started and completed before, during, and since these transitions, the layers show frozen moments of the different states in our history during these times. This new series optimistically references now as the “storm before the calm”.
True to form, Anderson layers meaning and definition as Cusp is also a reference to her practice, via both her physical marks as literal definition (“a pointed end where two curves meet”) and metaphorically as a point of transition in her work. I continue to make the controlled linear layered pieces, but am becoming increasingly fascinated with how paint moves. My impulse is to let it free, use gravity and force to release the pent up energy within the beads of pulled paint (from squeegees) into unexpected blasts/bursts of color and form. In some paintings, I incorporate gravity and force to move paint across the substrate. Wet, painted stripes surge and break into an organized chaos of marks and color. I’m guiding the paint, but the work exists between chance & intent. It’s important to let these paintings take on their own seemingly random direction.
Born in Kansas just days after a major tornado, Lorene Anderson went on to spend her childhood in Ohio and West Virginia. She received her B.F.A. from Miami University of Ohio and her M.F.A. from U.C. Berkeley, where she received the Eisner Award for painting. Anderson’s work is held in various private and public collections, including the Berkeley Art Museum, UC Davis Health, Walnut Creek Public Library, Imagery Estate Winery Artists Collection. She has been exhibiting her work in museums and galleries internationally, including the Los Gatos Art Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyoto Museum, and Sakai City Cultural Hall (Japan). She has completed residencies with the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts (New York) and La Porte Peinte Center for the Arts (France). She recently completed two large painting commissions for the UC Davis medical campus. Anderson lives and works in Oakland, California.
Cusp will be on view February 22 – March 31, 2020. The gallery is by-appointment only. Please contact kimperialfineart@me.com for inquiries.
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