Meet 2020 California Open Juror Kate Mothes

Meet Kate Mothes, a curator, entrepreneur, and now our 2020 California Open Juror. We’re thrilled to have her onboard and want to share a bit more about Kate’s incredible career.

Juror: Kate Mothes

TAG Gallery’s 2020 California Open juror, Kate Mothes, is no stranger to online exhibitions and how social media affects the artist ecosystem. Kate is a master of curating and showing art beyond the "arts center." She is the founder and curator of Young Space and Co-founder and Editor of Dovetail Magazine.

Young Space (yngspc), an independent, itinerant, contemporary art platform, began as a blog to connect with artists and exhibitions during postgraduate studies. The online-offline space has continued to grow into the project-based platform we know today. 

Dovetail Magazine is an independent online and print, contemporary arts publication dedicated to exploring the relationship between contemporary visual art and design, architecture, photography, travel, and global visual culture. 

Podcasts with juror Kate Mothes:

The Conversation Art Podcast - June 2020 Interview
Art & Cocktails Podcast - February 2020 Interview
Dear Artist Podcast - March 2020 Interview
I Like Your Work Podcast - October 2019 Interview

About the California Open

The 15th Annual 2020 California Open is now accepting art. The national juried competition celebrates contemporary and modern art. Artists residing in the United States who are 18 years or older may submit art in all media for consideration. Accepted work will be exhibited at TAG Gallery from September 9–October 1, 2020 and featured online. All work will be for sale.

The California Open is hosted by TAG Gallery, an artist-owned gallery collective featuring artists from Southern California. TAG is located on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile district.

APPLY HERE

AWARDS
First Place $1,000 
Second Place  $500
Third Place $250

Prospectus | FAQ

A Shoebox Conversation With Betzi Stein

Kristine Schomaker and the Shoebox PR team sit down with TAG Member Artist Betzi Stein to discuss her art practice, new work, upcoming exhibitions, and more.

Original article: JULY 14, 2020 Kristine Schomaker | Shoebox PR

“Please meet Betzi Stein:

People are my muse. My contemporary portrait paintings, sourced from photos I take myself, celebrate the ordinary and extraordinary people who capture my imagination. The spark that begins my creative process is what I find humorous in the people I choose as subjects. Once committed, I combine the formal elements that go into creating a work of art with a spiritual connection that breathes life into the people I paint.”

Read the full article on Shoebox PR…

Betzi Stein | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website

New Exhibitions At TAG Gallery: Fielden Harper, David Stewart Klein, Liliana D'Ambrosio, Damon Reinagle

Now Showing At TAG Gallery
July 13 - August 8

Fielden Harper
I Am a Material Girl

David Stewart Klein
Welcome to the New World: As It’s Always Been

Liliana D'Ambrosio
Trip to the Borders of Inequalities

Damon Reinagle
Hallucinations

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2020 California Open:

Now Accepting Submissions Through August 8th

Juror Kate Mothes of Yngspc

Apply Here

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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.

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.

Press Release

Website | instagram

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David Stewart Klein
Welcome to the New World:
As It’s Always Been

TAG Gallery is proud to present Welcome to the New World: As It’s 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. 

“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 It’s 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.

Press Release

Website | instagram | Twitter | Facebook

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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. 

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.

Press Release

Website | instagram

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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.

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.”

Press Release

instagram | wesbite

Transform Your Home With Fine Art From Los Angeles Artists

Transform Your Home With
Fine Art From LA Artists

Original fine art works from local, Los Angeles-based artists are available online from TAG Gallery. Refresh your home (and your Zoom/Teams backgrounds) with unique art from our accomplished artists. 

Navigate the abstract with artist Shalla Javid

With My Fruit Basket, TAG Artist Shalla Javid captures the spirit of our times. Her burdened, female figure is transformed by a bright color palette that evokes bounty among challenges. Rich greens and blues play foil to golden and red hues across a figure that represents hard work and accomplishment.

MY FRUIT BASKET

Shalla Javid
Acrylic on Canvas, unframed
25x31x1
$2,500.00

More…

PLUMERIAN VORTEX

James R. Lane
Mixed Media, unframed
22 x 29
$350.00

View the art »

BEAUTIFUL BLEACHING

Damon Reinagle
Acrylic on Canvas, unframed
48 x 24 x 1 inches
$950.00

Look closer »

ICELAND POPPY

James R. Lane
Mixed Media, unframed
21 x 29 inches
$400.00

Shop now »

DRAGONS &
CINNAMON BUNS

Damon Reinagale
Acrylic on Canvas, unframed
48 x 30 x 1
$1,250.00

Buy now »

ON MY WAY

Fielden Harper
Acrylic on Wood, wood frame
36 x 18
$1,100.00

View details »

ANOTHER LAYER

Feilden Harper
Acrylic on Canvas, unframed
30 x 30 x 1

Shop online »

2020 California Open, Now Accepting Applications!

Call For Artists: 2020 California Open Juried Art Competition!

*Submission Deadline Extended To August 14*

Artist get ready!

Our 2020 California Open is now accepting applications.

This 15th annual, national juried completion is open to all artists over 18 in the US and territories. Details on our site (link below).

2020 California Open Details & Application