Spatially Speaking

January 22, 2016

Spatially Speaking
Thursday, February 11 – Saturday, March 19, 2016
Heather Day, Cheryl Humphreys, Satsuki Shibuya, Lola Rose Thompson, & Lani Trock

Opening Reception:
Thursday, February 11
7-10pm

Tappan proudly presents Spatially Speaking, an exhibition of works by artists Heather Day, Cheryl Humphreys, Satsuki Shibuya, Lola Rose Thompson, and Lani Trock. Exploring the space for conversation created through the presentation and varying media of the work, this exhibition will highlight the experiential, mindful, investigative, and interpretive qualities of the five artists’ work.

Heather Day is an artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Day’s art is a form of visual storytelling interested in conveying moments of interactions. Her rich background in travel and culture encouraged her to see more of the world, where she discovered a connection to nature—her main source of inspiration. She travels seeking stories of all kinds—stories behind people, places, sound, and nature, and communicates these interpretations through layers of overlapping paint, expressing moments at every seam, edge, and line. Each mark represents her language of dynamic motion, allowing compositions to read like handwriting—from one side to another.

Informed by the nature of printmaking and the digital tools used to create her prints, the act of repetition has become an integral part of Cheryl Humphreys’ creating process. “I have taken to experimenting with the prints’ surfaces to evolve them and push the boundaries of traditional printmaking and traditional edition making. For example, is it still an edition if each print within the edition is hand-dyed, painted or gold-leafed? Do these hand-processes intercept the edition, making each one their own?” These questions are explored throughout Humphreys’ installation. Overwhelming repetition throughout the piece coalesced with the free and flowing nature of the individual pieces creates a complex arrangement of rigidity with a taste of the untamable, “like most women,” adds Humphreys.

Satsuki Shibuya is a painter, artist and spiritual thinker, living and working in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Her work is based upon intuition, energy and spirit, exploring the realms of the unknown to bridge the gaps between the traditionally tangible and the unseen. Each piece created embarks the observer on a unique and personal journey into their own soul, in hopes that they emerge not only inspired about peace and harmony, but also with enlightened appreciations for this world in which we all live and share. "[Watercolor] is more than just creating with a beautiful medium, but is a way to express myself that words would not allow, to let go of the need to worry about what to do next, but to follow the soul." Shibuya presents a new body of work, titled EXISTENCE.

Lola Rose Thompson works in drawing, sculpture, and mixed media installations. Her works are often accompanied by text; lengthy, prose-like titles that imply or describe the multiple connotative potentials of objects and words, which have previously been veiled by their exhaustive utility. "I am influenced by investigative journalism, headlines, the editorializing of popular culture, magic, medicine, science, and the new age." Employing an investigative approach, Thompson’s use of metaphor, simile, metonymy, and other literary devices throughout her works create conceptual proximity between disparate things, and re-contextualize the objects she makes or finds. "Lately I've been thinking about groups of people, clubs, fraternities, gatherings, secret societies. I like to image that through these paintings I can delve inside territory that is exclusive and make it inclusive by allowing the viewer to identify with the subjects of the painting. The painting is the invitation to the party."
Exhibiting a new body of work, each of Thompson’s pieces personify familiar spaces and inanimate objects, applying an investigative approach to creating a space of dialogue among the objects and characters in her works.

Lani Trock is a Los Angeles based multi-disciplinary artist. Her work investigates the human relationship to nature through photography, sculpture and immersive, environmental installations. Her artistic practice is informed by a childhood spent freely exploring the wilderness of Hawaii and California and a nontraditional trajectory into art making. Having worked as a designer, programmer & photographer, her process consistently inhabits the place in which technology and art meet. Deeply interested in the potential multi-functionality of spaces, her work seeks to create environments that are both beautiful and useful; creating educational spaces through the implementation of best new technological practices, and which are built utilizing found, repurposed or readily available materials.

The purpose of this body of work, entitled "biophilia; a public service," is to reestablish our relationship to self and to the natural world, after centuries of conscious disconnection. This work explores the effect of creating and experiencing a site designed to fulfill its highest potential through a multi-functional installation that is both beautiful and useful. The project is built to honor of the native, indigenous landscape that would exist and thrive in the site's region, with or without the presence of mankind. Through its creation, the artist's intention is to restore balance to the ancient harmony that man and land once shared.

Gallery Hours: Monday – Saturday, 9-7pm

8810 Washington Boulevard #102
Culver City, CA 90232