Christine Frerichs: Serenade

Klowden Mann is very pleased to present Serenade, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Christine Frerichs. The show is Frerichs’ second with the gallery, and continues her focus on memory, relationships and the construction of personal identity, as expressed through abstract painting. The exhibition centers around a series of paired canvases layered with thick oil paint, acrylic and wax, using subtle, bold, light and dark colors, and curving textured lines which ripple across each of their surfaces. These formal qualities describe an abstracted representation of two figures, and the visceral experience of different landscapes as they relate to the physical and emotional self. The exhibition will be on view from March 7th through April 11th, 2015, and will also feature several of Frerichs’ smaller individual 8.5 by 11 inch works in the gallery project room. The gallery will hold an opening reception on Saturday, March 7th from 6 to 8pm, and an artist talk on Saturday March 21st, at 4pm.

Standing in front of works that at first appear abstract, one soon has the sense of gazing into open fields of flickering light and color, reminiscent of the sky and water at different times of day and night. There is a visceral quality and sensuousness of material evident in all of the work, and intensified in the largest 6 by 7 foot paintings, which Frerichs intends to be deeply-felt, full-body experiences for the viewer. Several paintings in this series appear more overtly as landscapes, with discernible horizon lines, referencing the light and atmosphere of places with emotional significance for Frerichs—New York, Lake Tahoe, and Los Angeles. The light between us (Lake Tahoe) and Nocturne both depict the soft hues before and after sunset, the repetition of waves and fluidity of water, representing feelings of pleasure, movement and calm.

Other paintings offer less reference to place and instead forefront an impression of the figure, with more pronounced curving grid lines painted upon the surfaces. Here, Frerichs expresses the energy of people across the paired canvases, translating the physical body into abstract pictorial space, with a meeting taking place in the space where the two canvases meet, and the pattern repeats. On love (for Agnes Martin) and Warm Winter Kiss (for Constantin Brancusi) use vibrant whites, peaches and pinks to describe feelings of warmth, joy and affection, while also paying homage to two artists who have been influential in Frerichs’ artistic practice. Serenade, and Aubade 2 each use rich blue and peach hues, darkness and light, to abstractly depict a sense of subtle rhythmic movement shared between two lovers at dusk (Serenade) and dawn (Aubade 2).

The small paintings in the gallery project room offer a counterpoint to the immersive vibration Frerichs presents in the main space. Each 8.5 by 11 painting acts individually as something akin to a letter that Frerichs writes to herself, and to her viewers—as if these more playful smaller paintings function as a space in which to process the density of intuited experience and connection presented in the larger works.

Christine Frerichs (b. 1979, Los Angeles) has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions at venues including ACME, CB1 Gallery, Young Art (Los Angeles, CA), Vincent Price Museum (Monterey Park, CA), Sweeney Art Gallery (Riverside, CA), Duchess Presents (Chicago, IL), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tucson, AZ), and Kevin Kavanagh Gallery (Dublin, Ireland), and in art fairs with Klowden Mann in New York, Houston and Miami. Solo exhibitions of her work include Klowden Mann and Kaycee Olsen Gallery in Los Angeles, and a solo presentation at VOLTA NY in New York. Frerichs’ work has been reviewed by ArtForum, The Los Angeles Times, and published in New American Paintings, as well as being featured by Two Coats of Paint, Notes on Looking, and many others. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Arizona in 2002 and her M.F.A. from the University of California, Riverside in 2009. Frerichs is currently adjunct faculty at Otis College of Art and Design, East Los Angeles College, and Long Beach City College.