Reds
Curated by LA-based artist Katrina Umber, Reds brings together a small collection of objects under the most superficial of rubrics; color. The color red’s symbolic and metaphoric versatility precludes it from fitting into any strict system of classification. From passion to debt the color conjures the widest range of associations. The show seeks to explore the breadth and heterogeneity of this noble color rather than function as a kind of essentialism or distillation. The show features work by Catherine Fairbanks, Job Piston, Jesse Robinson, Debra Scacco, and Brian Taylor.
Reds includes work from Catherine Fairbanks’s ongoing Ceramics/z series, in which she uses paper mache to mimic ceramics, and through their combination, negotiate new forms. Job Piston’s ghostly red ‘screengrams’ are made by pressing light-sensitive photographic paper to the surface of a glowing laptop screen in a darkroom, indexing the digital/analog interface. Jesse Robinson presents two sculptures, one masquerading as a framed picture, the other a small formal sculpture thwarted by a ready-made intruder. The detailed ink and watercolor work of Debra Scacco explores expanded notions of ‘home’ and an unattainable sense of belonging. A fragment of ‘vandalized’ redwood leans against the wall, while an additional work of Brian Taylor’s glows like a beacon or a question.
Catherine Fairbanks received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010, and attended Skowhegan in 2011. She maintains a dual pursuit as a nurse and in 2013 was a visiting educator at Otis on the topic, The Aesthetics of Empathy. She will be an upcoming artist in residence at the National Textile Institute in Iceland, summer of 2014. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Job Piston lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been exhibited at Artists Space (New York); MAK Center (Los Angeles); Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco); Michael Benevento (Los Angeles); Roberts & Tilton (Los Angeles), and others. He recently completed his first solo museum presentation at California Museum of Photography. He has organized artist projects for Performa Magazine. He earned his BFA at California College of the Arts (San Francisco), and his MFA at UCLA in 2010.
Jesse Robinson was born in New Rochelle, New York. He earned a BA in Fine Art from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005 and a MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2008. He has had solo/two person exhibitions at Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX), Anderson Gallery (Richmond, VA), Showcave Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Reference Gallery (Richmond, VA), and Threewalls (Chicago, IL). He has participated in group exhibitions nationally and internationally. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Debra Scacco is a Los Angeles based artist whose work deals with an overwhelming sense of placelessness. Solo exhibitions include The Space Between and Birds of Passage (Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles). Scacco was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Ellis Island Museum (NYC, 2013), and was a nominee for the Jerwood Drawing Prize (London, 2009). Her work has been seen at Royal Academy of Arts (London), Viper Basel (Switzerland) and Patrick Heide Contemporary (London). In May, she will participate in Salon Zürcher (NYC) with Marine Projects.
Brian Taylor, born Michigan, U.S. 1977, Capricorn, Dragon. Brown/blue (nystagmus), ancestry Irish/German/Italian/English. BFA SAIC, MFA VCU. Chicago ’95-’07. Richmond VA ’07-10. Los Angeles ’10- . 1998 CR-V (black).
About the Curator: Katrina Umber (b. 1979. Minneapolis, MN) received her BFA from the Art Center College of Design (2004) and MFA from University of California Los Angeles (2010). She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2011). Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally; she had a solo show at Charlie James Gallery in 2013, and exhibited in the group show FLICKER curated by Jan Tumlir at Control Room Los Angeles. Her work is included in the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Collection and has been profiled in publications including Fabrik Magazine. She lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Installation
