TAG Gallery July Newsletter: Fielden Harper, David Stewart Klein, Liliana D'Ambrosio, Damon Reinagle
July 14 - August 8
Fielden Harper I Am a Material Girl
David Stewart Klein Welcome to the New World: As Its Always Been
Liliana D'Ambrosio Trip to the Borders of Inequalities
Damon Reinagle Hallucinations
*Due to new state and county health orders to restrict all indoor activities for museums and galleries for the next three weeks, TAG will host our July exhibitions virtually. Stay tuned to our news page and social media for more updates! Any questions may be emailed to gallery@taggallery.net*
Fielden Harper
I Am a Material Girl
TAG Gallery is proud to present I am a Material Girl, a solo exhibition of works by artist Fielden Harper. I am a Material Girl is a radical departure from Harper’s city scenes, trading in her architectural can-vases to focus primarily on storytelling through material exploration guided by her sense of play. This journey has led Harper to narrate the story of her upbringing through the use of textiles and fabrics. This paradigm shift allows the material and her memories to dictate the content and subject matter.
Fielden Harper
I Am a Material Girl
Born in the Bluegrass area of Kentucky, Harper was surrounded by a culture rich in the crafts of Appalachia. She was continually influenced by her grandmother’s sewing skill and her storytelling. In I Am a Material Girl, Harper finds herself not emulating, but rather incorporating familiar and familial traditions to tell her story on her own terms. Through the use of quilting cotton, Harper aims for a more intimate engagement with her viewers, inviting them to weave their own stories together with hers, creating connection and a sense of empathy in a time where we are disconnected physically and emotionally by pandemics and social unrest.
David Stewart Klein
Welcome to the New World: As Its Always Been
TAG Gallery is proud to present Welcome to the New World: As Its Always Been, a solo exhibition of works by painter David Stewart Klein. This body of work produced mainly in 2020, investigates the human psyche in dealing with modern life, whether it be an individual trying to be true to one’s self while pressured by expectations, both interpersonally and culturally, or with the recent pandemic and the aftermath of a broken world. Klein uses the movement of paint and intimacy of tight portrait composition to give the viewer a sense of what the person is feeling. The vulnerability of his subjects creates a sense of palpable intimacy, whether it is a sense of worry, anxiety, trust seeking, fortitude, innocence or joy, fear, or acceptance. Klein utilizes a deep and rich palette of how he perceives the subjects and the world which they inhabit.
David Stewart Klein
Welcome to the New World: As Its Always Been
“I have spent years building an art practice that leaves the final product feeling raw…The purpose of this art for me on a social level, is to bring the viewer into the art, which though finished remains a raw expression of emotion and experience. We should not be blinded by how fast things are moving, or by the desire to fill our time with more stimuli. The pace of cities, technology, and the access to content fills our lives.” Welcome to the New World: As Its Always Been aims to momentarily provide the viewer with something more intimate than what is largely a culture based on immediate consumption and impersonal, filtered content.
Liliana D'Ambrosio
Trip to the Borders of Inequalities
TAG Gallery is proud to present Trip to the Borders of Inequalities by Italian painter Liliana D’Ambrosio. D’Ambrosio has explored the depths of her inner most thoughts for this body of work, producing pieces that allow the work to be experienced and lived at the height of their beauty. The work does not have a concluded character, but rather exist in a constant state of flux and change, exploring the abstract language of painting in relation to the rhythmic nature of experimental music.
Liliana D'Ambrosio
Trip to the Borders of Inequalities
Each work is a different perspective, but all together converge on the run towards the same fire the representation, in symbol, of the countless facets of existence. A condensate of contemporary art ranging from neo-figurativism to abstractionism, from surrealism to expressionism, from a sort of fragmentism to mystical visions in which nature and history seem to recompose into a whole. A single thread travels the time from Mythology to Technology. And on the same thread many emotions.
Liliana spent much of the 2000’s traveling in Europe, India, Africa, and the Middle East. Since 2010, she has divided her time between Florence and California. In 2018, after a prolonged absence from the art world due to illness, she decided to return to the United States to expand her influence in the world of American Art.
Damon Reinagle
Hallucinations
TAG Gallery is proud to present Hallucinations, a solo exhibition of works by painter Damon Reinagle. In recent years Reinagle has shifted his focus to paintings of endangered species as his subject matter, utilizing large stencils of his own creation. Often embedded over free flowing abstract colors, Reinagle depictions signal for humanity to beware of the plight of endangered animals and our effects on their ecosystems and communities. In search for personal artistic identity, Reinagle is constantly exploring avenues of the unexpected, whether that might be techniques, materials, or subject matter. To this end the artist often uses his practice to blur the line between fantasy and reality, the recognizable and unrecognizable via the use of shape, color, and pattern. In this endeavor, Reinagle encourages his viewers to escape into their own dream-like existence.
Damon Reinagle
Hallucinations
Most recently, with the outbreak of COVID 19, Reinagle has turned more to his drawing roots. Creating my own surreal worlds as a coping mechanism has been my push with these Hallucinations. “Creating universal imagery that others can identify with during these times is my visual mission. Utilizing colored pencils and paint, my images of human heads inhabiting a sea of invasive, yet, somehow surreally floating bubbles, invite the viewer to question their own vulnerability in these crazy times! The inhabitants of these infected worlds co-exist, much as we do with the intrusive virus that threatens.”
TAG Gallery, Now Open To The Public!
We’re Open, And We Have Some Great Art For You!
June 16 - July 11*
Katie Crown - Really Big Drawings | Sally Jacobs - California Grown
Shelley Lazarus - Mostly H2O | Toni Reinis - Moral Stain | Go Figure
*Due to county guidelines and policies, no reception will be held.
TAG Gallery is proud to present Really Big Drawings, a solo exhibition of large scale “metal drawings” by artist Katie Crown. The exhibition will now run from June 16 – July 11. Crown’s newest body of work accentuates her drawing skills, with subject matter jolted from her sketchbooks. In this endeavor, the artist looks to billboard-esque, metallic wall sculpture to investigate the roles that both humor and horror occupy in the hustle and bustle of everyday life while poking fun at coping mechanisms we form to get through each day. The figures depicted can be seen experiencing pancake induced anxiety episodes, depressive bike rides, and uncomfortable therapy sessions.
Humor has often been an element in Crown’s practice. These new works take it to a more exaggerated, cartoonish mode. In addition to their linear aspects, the pieces include planes of pattern and color. The style amplifies the humor of each situation depicted. “With all the problems in the world, we need humor to survive.” – Katie Crown.
Katie Crown graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Tufts University. Her artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries in 12 states and Washington, D.C.
Website: katiecrown.net
Instagram: instagram.com/katiecrownart
View Really Big Drawings online!
Sally Jacobs is a watercolor artist and a farmers market devotee -- she combines her love for her art and the bounty of the markets in her contemporary botanical watercolor paintings. Each weekend she is at vendor stalls, ready to select her picks of the week for her kitchen and studio easel.
In her latest exhibit, California Grown, Jacobs, zooms in, portraying flowers and vegetables with dramatic precision unique for a watercolorist. She transforms a vegetable we choose for dinner or a flower for display, rendering its structure eye-catching and explicit, causing viewers to catch their breath in wonder at the feats of nature.
Jacobs has exhibited in numerous juried shows in New York and San Francisco, and at museums in New York, Minneapolis and Phoenix. She was an award winner at the Brand 37 Works on Paper exhibit and is one of the artists included in “Todays Botanical Artists,” a publication of well-known nature artists.
Jacobs has taught botanical art at The Getty Center, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles Arboretum, and the annual meeting of the American Society of Botanical Art. Currently she is teaching at the Brentwood Art Center in Los Angeles.
Website: sallyjacobs.com
Instagram: instagram.com/sallyjanejacobs
View California Grown Online!
Botanical Watercolor Demo: June 23, 12:30 - 1:30 PM | RSVP @ flwrbrush@aol.com
TAG Gallery is pleased to present Mostly H20, a solo exhibition by watercolorist Shelley Lazarus. The proceeds of this show will go to the Robert David Lazarus Pulmonary Rehabilitation Unit at Cedar-Sinai Hospital in memory of her son Robert. Shelley Lazarus was born and educated in New York, where as a teenager she attended Pratt College. She later attended Syracuse University studying fine arts and at the Parsons School of Design.
Living in a crowded city she became infatuated with the buildings around her. The urban landscapes that she captures in this series of paintings are from sketches she made while on location or peering out of windows. Never a purist watercolor artist, she renders her works with her signature style incorporating these works with pencils, pens, crayons, and different mediums.
Lazarus is a founding member of TAG Gallery and has served on its board since its inception. She has taught watercolor medium at the Brentwood Art Center for over 26 years. Her award winning works and can be found in both private and corporate sector collections domestic and abroad. Lazarus is also a member of various art related organizations including the Watercolor Honor Society.
Follow Shelley: instagram.com/lazarusshelley
View Mostly H2O online!
Watercolor Demo w/ Shelley Lazarus: June 24: 12:30 - 2:00 PM | RSVP @ artistsjl@gmail.com
TAG Gallery is proud to present two bodies of work from contemporary figurative sculptor Toni Reinis. The bodies of work, respectively titled Moral Stain and Go Figure! will be on display in TAG’s south gallery. The exhibitions will run June 16 - July 11.
Striving for equality, a civil society and social justice has been a great part of sculptor Toni Reinis’ adult life. Toni will stir your emotions and challenge you to ACT. “ It is up to the people of this nation to stand up, because Washington leadership is deft to our voices”.
Toni reminds us that America has a long history of moral stains. African Americans have endured slavery, Japanese Americans have endured internment, civil rights abuses are repeated decade after decade, voter suppression, homelessness, segregation, and caging of small children. During the Trump administration, there has been a greater decline in social justice, a horrifying lack of decency, lies and immorality to an extent never seen before. I Matter, was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement that campaigns against violence and systemic racism. The sculpture is a fired clay portrait with a layered patina. It is mounted on bullet casings.
This is about humanity, is an example of one of the many Moral Stains we are now living with. Children separated from parents at the boarder and kept in cages is one of the worst stains we have witnessed. In this sculpture of a caged child, the portrait is made of plaster and paper clay. This is about humanity is also the name of a new organization that has made 16 trips to the Mexican boarder bringing supplies, food, clothing and toys to families looking for a better life for their children. Donations welcome.
Follow Toni: instagram.com/tonireinisart
Website: tonireinisart.com
View Moral Stain / Go Figure Online!
TAG Gallery supports inclusivity, awareness, and equality. #BlackLivesMatter
TAG Gallery Reopens Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16th
TAG Gallery reopens tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16th with amended business hours: Tue-Sat, 11 am - 3:00 pm | 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
County of Los Angeles Protocol for Galleries & Museums
We thank our artists and visitors for their support and patience during this time of COVID-19. TAG is committed to ensuring the safety of our staff, artists, and guests. As such, gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer will be stationed near the front entrance and throughout the gallery.
Visitors must wear a face mask while in the gallery. We will provide a mask for those without one in their possession.
Gallery staff will also frequently sanitize all surfaces, door knobs, and railing. All visitors will also be asked to register their visit in a private log to help oversee any form of contact tracing. This log is private and will will only be shared with county officials at their request. These policies meet and exceed the county health guidelines available on their site.
All exhibitions are available to be seen in person or by appointment. All exhibitions are also available to be viewed online. For all artwork/artist inquiries, please email gallery@taggallery.net.
We hope to see you soon!
Showing June 16 - July 11*
Katie Crown - Really Big Drawings
Sally Jacobs - California Grown
Shelley Lazarus - Mostly H2O
Toni Reinis - Moral Stain | Go Figure
*Due to county guidelines and policies, no reception will be held.
Black Lives Matter
TAG Gallery stands in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter
movement and the fight to combat racial inequality, racial injustice,
and police brutality. We encourage our audience to not be silent.
Please click the links below to donate and take action:
Black Visions Collective: blackvisionsmn.org | Reclaim The Block: reclaimtheblock.org
Campaign Zero: joincampaignzero.org | Unicorn Riot: unicornriot.ninja
Curate LA list of Black owned galleries!
Come Visit Us:
TAG Gallery is located at 5458 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
This Week At TAG: SKÜT, Arlene Weinstock, Pam Douglas, Farnaz Shadravan
See what the TAG artists are creating while we all stay home! View works from SKÜT, Arlene Weinstock, and Pam Douglas. Also check out the first episode of our new art podcast "TAG Bytes" to hear artist Farnaz Shadravan in conversation with gallery manager Rakeem Cunningham! For any inquiries, please email gallery@taggallery.net and feel free to check out our new online store here!
Arlene Weinstock
We the People
water media, 18.5" x 24" | $900
Follow Arlene: instagram.com/arlenew.art
Website: arlenew.com
Pam Douglas
Sanctuary series detail.
"The second shelter in Sanctuary Part 3 is a refuge made of sticks and burlap like the simple hug we all need now."
Follow Pam: instagram.com/pamdouglasart
Website: pamdouglasart.com
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.
