This Week At TAG: Farnaz Shadravan, Edward Lightner, James R. Lane, K Ryan Henisey

May 30, 2020

See what the TAG artists are creating while we all stay home! View works from Ed Lightner, James Lane, K Ryan Henisey, & Shalla Javid and listen to a conversation between Farnaz Shadravan and gallery manager Rakeem Cunningham! For any inquiries, please email gallery@taggallery.net and feel free to check out our new online store here!

TAG Gallery is proud to introduce a new series of recorded discussions with our member artists entitled TAG Bytes. The goal of these interviews is to give our audience an in depth look into our artist roster and delve deeper into their practices. The first episode of TAG Bytes features artist Farnaz Shadravan in conversation with gallery manager Rakeem Cunningham to discuss her inspirations, process, and the importance of making meaningful artwork.

Follow Farnaz here:

instagram.com/shadravanfarnaz

farnazshadravan.com

Edward Lightner

**Edward Lightner**
*Damocles*
assemblage
18.5" x 14" x 3.5"
$500
Follow Ed: **instagram.com/edwardlightner**
Website: **edlightner.com**

James R. Lane

**James R. Lane**
*Butterfly Collage*
complex photography on tissue
20" x 23"
$400
Follow James: **instagram.com/jamesrlaneart**
Website: **jamesrlaneart.com**

K Ryan Henisey shares a video introduction to his Pantheon series. View Here!

Follow Ryan: @kryanhenisey

Website: kryanhenisey.com

Blog: kryanhenisey.com/blog

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

May 26, 2020

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

**Jaime Coffey Bateman**

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**

**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**

**Sunhee Joo**

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**

**Sunhee Joo**

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**

**Emil Rutenberg**

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**

**Emil Rutenberg**

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**

**Elyse Wyman**

**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**

**Elyse Wyman**

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

May 23, 2020

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**

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

**Shalla Javid**

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

**Damon Reinagle**

**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

May 19, 2020

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

**K Ryan Henisey**

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**

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**

**SKÜT**

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**

**Garo Ourfalian**

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**

**Garo Ourfalian**

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**

**Farnaz Shadravan**

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**

**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

May 16, 2020

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