Member Artist Spotlight: Jaime Coffey Bateman, Sunhee Joo, Emil Rutenberg, Elyse Wyman

These paintings are light studies. Light assists us in understanding landscapes, by experiencing the magnitude and direction in which it allows our vision to flow. As light moves it creates a dialogue between forms by defining them and their negative spaces. By concentrating on light as its own entity, I explore how it manipulates itself around objects and is distinguished through mood.

These images are also from travels abroad, where I seek an unfamiliar setting to explore new forms in unique lighting and climate. The process of recording this subject matter is important for me to share, with the goal of understanding a simple, intimate moment.

Follow Jaime: instagram.com/jaimecoffeybateman

Website: jaimecoffeybateman.com

Jaime Coffey Bateman graduated from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting. Currently residing in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, her artwork focuses on light studies as landscapes in foreign places. Her paintings began to evolve when she developed a passion for travel. Jaime has spent months traveling throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and Madagascar, painting on sight and gathering subject matter for her future work. Her most recent work focuses on images spanning Oregon to California.

Follow Jaime: instagram.com/jaimecoffeybateman

Website: jaimecoffeybateman.com

For Sunhee Joo, art is visual poetry. Instead of words I use lines, colors and shapes. I arrange those visual elements to create a certain feeling or mood. I strive to find a unique and personal artistic expression that conveys my love for God, people and nature.Even in my religious work, I try to liberate myself from dogmatism or traditionalism. I do not want to preach nor teach. I just want to invite the viewers come inside my artwork and feel His love.

Follow Sunhee: instagram.com/sunhee.joo

Website: sunheejoo.com

My favorite subjects are people and nature, Especially I like people in the Bible. The Bible stories always inspire me and give me life. I like to depict a scene from the Bible with a fresh childlike vision. I also like people here and now. I try to see holiness in them. Since I grew up near the mountains, hills, rivers, and streams, I love to create images with natural elements in it.

Follow Sunhee: instagram.com/sunhee.joo

Website: sunheejoo.com

South African born, Emil Rutenberg settled in Los Angeles in 1983 where he established a fashion label under his personal creative direction. His innovative concepts rapidly gained a strong US and international following.

Follow Emil: instagram.com/emilrutenberg

Website: emilrutenbergstudio.com

Over the years Rutenberg's creative drive shifted towards fine art and his sketches demonstrate a powerful and rich blending of skill with intuitive and spontaneous strength. His works exhibit a freshness and beguiling charge, expressing his unique perception of the human spirit, exposed through the human form.

Follow Emil: instagram.com/emilrutenberg

Website: emilrutenbergstudio.com

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Elyse Wyman was born in Los Angeles and received her BA in Fine Arts (Cum Laude) from UCLA. She studied under Richard Diebenkorn, Jan Stussy, Lynn Foulkes and Robert Heinecken. She furthered her art education in Paris, France at the Académie de La Grande Chaumière. Ms. Wyman has pursued parallel careers in both fine arts and graphic design.

Follow Elyse: instagram.com/elysewyman3

Website: elysewyman.com

As a graphic artist for A&M records she designed albums, posters, music books, advertising and billboards. Currently, as Art Director and owner of DesignWorks, Unlimited Graphic Design Studio, her clients have included A&M Records, American Ballet Theatre, American Film Institute, ASCAP, Chevron, Disc Marketing, General Mills, UCLA, United Airlines, Toyota, Victoria's Secret, Warner Brothers, Women in Film, and many others.

Follow Elyse: instagram.com/elysewyman3

Website: elysewyman.com

This Week At TAG: James R. Lane, Shalla Javid, Damon Reinagle, Liliana D'Ambrosio

See what the TAG artists are creating while we all stay home!  work from James R. Lane, Shalla Javid, & Damon Reinagle, & Liliana D'Ambrosio. For any inquiries, please email gallery@taggallery.net 

James R. Lane, 2020 Jelly Fish, complex photography on tissue, 20" x 23"
Follow James: instagram.com/jamesrlaneart
Website: jamesrlaneart.com

Shalla Javid, Love is My Religion, acrylic on canvas, 40" x 30"
Follow Shalla: instagram.com/shallaart
Website: shallartist.com

Damon Reinagle, White Hope, colored pencil on butcher paper, 18" x 15"
Follow Damon: instagram.com/damonsart47
Website: damonsart.com

Liliana D'Ambrosio

Liliana D'Ambrosio, Pomegranate Harvest, Acrylic, 30" x 40"
Follow Liliana - facebook.com/liliana.dambrosio2
Website: lilianadambrosio.com

Member Artist Spotlight: K Ryan Henisey, SKÜT, Garo Ourfalian, Farnaz Shadravan

As a California-based artist, K Ryan Henisey's work is heavily influenced by the people, culture, and landscape of the Golden State. His personal narrative is often interwoven with mythological subjects, using patterning as a vehicle to make meaning from our post modern existence.

"I use a segmented form, highlighted with patterns and material," explains the artist. "With these two visual tools, I create connections within a context of deconstruction and Queer theory. Ultimately, I believe that existence must be constructed—typically through the hands of an artist—in order to hold value."

Follow Ryan: @kryanhenisey

Website: kryanhenisey.com

Blog: kryanhenisey.com/blog

K Ryan Henisey has displayed work throughout California and will debut internationally in China in 2020. Ryan won an Award of excellence in fine art at the 2015 California State Fair. He currently serves as president of TAG Gallery, an artist cooperative in Los Angeles.

Follow Ryan: @kryanhenisey

Website: kryanhenisey.com

Blog: kryanhenisey.com/blog

I create for happiness. I've always been a geek, and my folks encouraged artistic curiosity. My journey in the early days of designing and creating Grindr, fusing art & technology in a lush user experience, taught me to explore and push beyond. I try to infuse that ideology into art by experimenting with new media and fun materials.

As a gay man, and proud member of the LGBT community, it’s important for me to represent queer concepts in all forms of design. I love incorporating themes of awareness, acceptance, and activism into my art. Expression through color, texture, and design are all part of that narrative. I donate a portion of my art sales to charitable causes, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

Follow SKÜT @inkedbyskut on social media:

Instagram: instagram.com/inkedbyskut

Twitter: twitter.com/inkedbyskut

Facebook: facebook.com/inkedbyskut

SKÜT

SKÜT (Scott Lewallen) is a Southern California artist and Los Angeles native best known as original designer and Co-Founder of Grindr. Notably, SKÜT was featured in WeHo In Paso via the City of West Hollywood and held a solo exhibition at The Other Art Fair by Saatchi Art in Downtown Los Angeles. He joined TAG Gallery for 2020 and currently creates art in his on-site studio.

Follow SKÜT @inkedbyskut on social media:

Instagram: instagram.com/inkedbyskut

Twitter: twitter.com/inkedbyskut

Facebook: facebook.com/inkedbyskut

In an effort to understand himself and others, Garo Ourfalian uses art as a means to express and analyze human behavior. Moreover, I like to circulate ideas, elicit emotions, and address psychological matters via art. In my series “0 to 1,” I strive to uncover an art form wherein it’s possible to move from one mental state into another. It’ll take you from 0 to 1. The 0 to 1 movement is aimed at changing your level of consciousness into what ever it is that you desire to receive from the art. Whether it be broadening your perspective or finding value in the unexpected, the intent is to reach uncharted territory.

Follow Garo: instagram.com/garoourfalian

Website: garochegar.com

I was born in Lebanon in 1968 and started painting at a very early age and have been painting ever since. In an attempt to understand myself and human behavior, I believe art, shapes, colors, and figures are the key. However, I believe there is no final destination. There are no conclusions. Art is a portal through which I try to understand love, hate, anxiety, and depression. I had many choices in life, but one I could not escape - art. It was the only "must."

Follow Garo: instagram.com/garoourfalian

Website: garochegar.com

I am drawn to art making for my love of storytelling. Often I work with found objects. I add my mark to objects that have stories of their own and I am always humbled by their magnificence.

Follow Farnaz: instagram.com/shadravanfarnaz

Website: farnazshadravan.com

Farnaz Shadravan was born and raised in Iran. She was trained as a Manuscript Illuminator of the Koran. Originally arriving in the United States in 1979, she was deported back to Iran in 1981. She returns to America in 1986, graduates from Art School-University of Utah in 1990 and from UCSF School of Dentistry in 1994. She has also had extensive training in Printmaking and Sculpture at San Francisco Art Institute and private workshops. She is currently practicing Dentistry in the Bay Area.


Follow Farnaz: instagram.com/shadravanfarnaz

Website: farnazshadravan.com

This Week At TAG: Katie Crown, Shalla Javid, Sunhee Joo, Karen Woodward Sarrow

See what the TAG artists are creating while we all stay home! Scroll down to see a walkthrough of Katie Crown's latest exhibition "Really Big Drawings",  as well as work from Shalla David, Sunhee Joo, & mask making by Karen Woodward Sarrow. For any inquiries, please email gallery@taggallery.net 

Katie Crown walks us through her recent series of experimental works utilizing fabric. Click the link for the full video!

Follow Katie www.instagram.com/katiecrownart
Website: https://www.katiecrown.net

Shalla Javid, Thinking of You, acrylic on canvas, 30" x 24"

Follow Shalla: instagram.com/shallaart
Website: shallartist.com

Sunhee Joo, A Girl with a Lamb, digital media, 9" x 9"

Follow Sunhee: instagram.com/sunhee.joo
Website: sunheejoo.com

Karen Woodward Sarrow, TAG member and director of ArtHYPE has been making masks for her family and others. "I taught my husband to sew, and we've made almost 100 reusable masks for both national customers, and to donate to Valley Community Healthcare as an ongoing project."

Follow Karen: instagram.com/karensarrow
Website: sarrowstudio.com
ArtHype: www.arthype.net

New works have been added to our new TAG Gallery online store! We also now accept all forms of credit cards in addition to Paypal! Click here to check it out!

Member Artist Spotlight: Pam Douglas, Shirley Asano Guldimann, Arlene Weinstock, Judy Zimbert

Member Artist Spotlight

For all artwork/artist inquiries, please email gallery@taggallery.net  
To see our online shop, please click here!

We are in a startling time hearing the cries of children torn from their parents at the American border. Beyond this country, refugees are seeking sanctuary around the world. The multi-year Sanctuary project is a visceral response to their humanity.

For decades I created individual paintings and assemblages ranging from abstract through figurative in a variety of mediums and I’ve been in many exhibitions. I’ve been well reviewed in shows including the California African American Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And my work was featured at the Los Angeles Art Show at the Convention Center in 2019.

Now Sanctuary is a three-part installation that expands on all my previous work. Entering Part One a visitor is immersed in life-size drawings with sculptural elements draped ceiling to floor behind a chain link fence. These walking figures are parents seeking refuge and children caged behind ropes. The 60-foot installation makes the viewer a witness to the refugee journey.

In Part One (2019), the figures travel by land. Part Two (2020) is travel by sea. Hand made “rafts” have canvas sails where the refugees are drawn in the same charcoal style as the walkers. Behind the rafts that fan out across the gallery floor will be a 36-foot wide abstract mural that I painted to suggest the devastation they are escaping.

I am currently beginning Part Three, the Shelters. These are fabric-draped free-standing structures that will culminate the journey. Watch for their debut at TAG in 2021.

Follow Pam: instagram.com/pamdouglasart
Website: pamdouglasart.com
Blog: pamdouglasart.com/recent-posts/art-in-progress

Shirley Asano Guldimann is a Southern California artist, whose works are held in private collections. Her figurative art, painted on slippery surfaces with water-based mediums, evokes the transient and elusive nature of her subjects. This questing after the fleeting reflects her Japanese-inflected aesthetic.

My recent work is abstract and grows intuitively from the first mark of color placed on the surface. I start with a color and explore an aspect of that color - often I'm interested in complimentary color. If a representational elements appears, I follow it and move the work in that direction.

I mix media using paint, pencil, ink, and pastel, as needed to get to where the work needs to go. The handmade paper series is part of my abstract work. It is created by developing sheets of paper from pulp that I sculpt, texture, and paint. This approach is quite different from how I develop representational work.

I think of my representational artwork as pausing time. Each image captures a space in time for personal contemplation and rest. The space can be any place, but it is almost always outdoors in nature, on the street where I live, or places I visit.

Fog, rain, and darkness are frequent subjects of my work. They offer the contemplative space I am trying to achieve and leave room for interpretation. The media and techniques I use emphasize the ambiguity of what I see. I work predominantly in colored pencil for these representational landscapes and atmospherics.

Follow Arlene: instagram.com/arlenew.art
Website: arlenew.com

The paintings of Jewish-American artist Judy Zimbert are made from the application of multitudinous layers of paint. As many are removed as restored in Zimbert’s attempt to capture the ambiguous nature of existence and infuse each piece with all the emotions felt and experienced within life’s moments. Each work is original to Zimbert’s experiences of summers in Michigan, life in her own neighborhood or travels to distant lands.

Inspired by the post-war angst of such painters as Lucien Freud and Frank Auerbach and the German Expressionist art movement, Zimbert’s paintings use symbolism to evoke meaning as well as human traits, to express intensity, place and mood. She aims to translate the emotional quality of everyday and current events and to weave a visual narrative for her viewer, inviting that viewer to immerse himself or herself into a a shared emotional experience. Judy Zimbert currently lives and works in Beverly Hills, California.

Follow Judy: instagram.com/zimbert.judy
Website: judyzimbert.com