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Clare Grill: Mary Mary

October 18 - November 29, 2014
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Opening: Saturday October 18th, 2014, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

DIANE ROSENSTEIN is pleased to announce Clare Grill: Mary Mary, a solo exhibition of new paintings and drawings by the New York-based artist. Clare Grill: Mary Mary opens Saturday, October 18th, with a reception for the artist from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. This is Grill’s first exhibition with the gallery.

Grill, who was born in Chicago, will present abstract paintings as well as drawings she calls “Samplers”. Grill paints with oils on linen, including the inconsistent texture as a rich compositional element of her rigorous but unexpected abstractions. Often painting on an intimate scale, she employs color, surface, and form in an exploratory venture, seeking a “felt sense” of content over explicitly recognizable images. Her motifs originate in women’s history and antique samplers—small, embroidered pieces of fabric made by young girls to display their proficiency in needlepoint—yet her paintings are dynamic reappraisals of contemporary abstraction

The title of the exhibition - Mary Mary - refers to the handing down of tradition via a name. Both the artist’s sister and their maternal grandmother share the name Mary. The title also references a familiar nursery rhyme, repeated by generations. Similarly, Grill’s paintings are interpretations and iterations of what came before: tiny marks, strange, drawn shapes, faded color, and worn, worked surfaces. Grill’s practice thus investigates domestic training, as well as the generational relationships between women, their families, their homes, and their environments.

In her artist’s statement, Grill writes: “I make paintings about things fading away...I’ve become less concerned with image really and more with just painting.” Recently, she has been included in conversations about “The New Casualists” - a movement in contemporary abstract painting (coined by artist and writer Sharon Butler in 2011) -- but resists that label. Though she has a tendency to “flirt with the edge” and looks for unexpected outcomes, Clare Grill offers openness, not accident.

Clare Grill: Mary Mary will be on view through November 29, 2014

Clare Grill (USA, 1979) received her BA from the University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN (2001), an MFA from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY (2005), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2011). Miss Grill’s paintings were recently included in This One’s Optimistic: Pincushion (curated by Cary Smith), New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT (2014), and other institutions including: Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA (2014); New Art Center, Newton, MA (2012); and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2009). Grill has had solo exhibitions at Fred.Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT (2014); Soloway, Brooklyn, NY (2014); Reserve Ames, Los Angeles, CA (2013); and Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY (2011. Important group shows include: Brooklyn Bridge (curated by Justine Frischmann), George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2014); and Primary (curated by Jamillah James), Nudashank Gallery, Baltimore, MD (2012). Clare Grill lives and works in New York City.

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Ray Anthony Barrett: Word Is Bond

October 18 - November 29, 2014
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Opening: Saturday October 18th, 2014, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

DIANE ROSENSTEIN is pleased to announce Ray Anthony Barrett: Word Is Bond, a solo exhibition of drawings by the Los Angeles-based artist. Ray Anthony Barrett: Word Is Bond opens in the gallery’s Project Room on Saturday, October 18th, with a reception for the artist from 6:00 pm Ð 8:00 pm. This is Barrett’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

Ray Anthony Barrett, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri, will present twelve new ink on paper drawings. Mr. Barrett’s intricate tableaus depict anthropomorphically masked figures engaged in allegorical narratives. In the satirical tradition of Lewis Carroll and the visual language of 19th Century political cartoons, these compositions include poetic texts that uses hip-hop vernacular to articulate an evolving mythology.

Mr. Barrett acknowledges contemporary influences such as R. Crumb and David Hammons; but emphasizes the visual legacy of Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel, and James Ensor. On the other hand, the rhythm, style, and delivery (especially the political content) of 1990s hip-hop groups Public Enemy and The Wu Tang Clan reveal themselves in the text.

In his artist statement, Ray Barrett cites an early experience at the University of Missouri as a significant influence on his artistic practice. As a student of Dr. Robert Williams (who coined the term “Ebonics”), Barrett took the B.I.T.C.H. test, (Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity), and subsequently experienced a shift in the way he looked at language. This new perspective is evidenced in these drawings, where language is shown to be the social currency of contemporary tribal membership: a form of a mask that reveals more than it conceals.

Ray Anthony Barrett (USA, b. 1980) received his BA from the University of Missouri, Columbia (2003) and his MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon (2011). This year, he was included in Another Cats Show, 356 Mission, Los Angeles, and Unsparing Quality (Curated by Farrah Karapetian), Diane Rosenstein. Mr. Barrett participated in the Dakar Biennial, Dakar, Senegal (2010). Mr. Barrett lives and works in Los Angeles.


DIANE ROSENSTEIN
831 North Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90038Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 6pm
tel: 323.462.2790
www.dianerosenstein.com