Check back for a link to the official Gallery blog

New blogger for House gallery

2010-04-17T14:42:00.001-07:00

Here is the link for the new blogger for house gallery:

House Gallery Blog

Moving On.

2010-04-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry kids-
This blog has been abandoned due to a change in staff. When the official "House Gallery" blog is up and running I will post a link.

House Gallery is solely owned and operated by Julie Dunker.

Figures- Jan Wurm and Rafal Karcz at House Gallery

2010-04-11T13:45:00.001-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EXHIBITION: JAN WURM AND RAFAL KARCZ|FIGURES

HOUSE GALLERY
110 West Broadway
basement of the Peery Hotel
Salt Lake City UT 84101

Dates:
April 2 - April 30, 2010
Reception: Saturday, April 10: 5 pm - 9pm

HOUSE GALLERY, formerly The Livingroom, presents its inaugural show
entitled "Figures" by the American artist Jan Wurm and
Polish artist Rafal Karcz which examines two contrasting techniques
involving neo-expressionist figuration in a sociological and emotional
context. This two-person exhibition is a groundbreaking show of both
new paintings and works on paper from both artists which takes a fresh
and engaging look at the human body or bodies within relationships,
whether it be between person and environment or between persons.
Despite the seemingly traditional use of mixed media techniques or oil
paints, both Wurm and Karcz fearlessly explore the way individuals are
placed within their milieu without sacrificing their own sensibilities
and craftsmanship of how they depict humanity.

In Wurm's latest series of paintings and works on
paper, the artist uses both bright and muted colors and classical
compositions to take a strong look at couples, mother and child, or
groups of people in undisclosed situations happening at various places
such as gambling casinos, bars, or beaches. With a sharp eye, Wurm
goes beyond mere photojournalism by capturing a tense moment that may
reflect joy, sadness, depression, etc. within her slice-of-life
portraits. Like a short story, each work expresses a dramatic gravity
that is trapped within loosely flowing lines and melting splotches of
colors that suggests the dynamic nature of our own personal
relationships in different context ranging from love within a couple
to the Renaissance motif of mother and child. However, the pieces
often contain the weight of existentialism that tempers a particular
bleakness with a hint of hidden adventure about life. Often one can
see her characters refusing to look at each other and speaking to each
other without really engaging on an emotional level. Viewers can see
all types of people within the canvases or paper ranging from the
elderly to youthful beauties to children within the typology of
humanity that manifests Wurm's Austrian heritage. This cross-section
of her humanity mostly in a California society merges the tenor of
August Sander's scientific photographs of Weimar Republican society
and Albert Camus' terse short stories that harbors psychological
tenseness in modern society.

Even though Karcz also addresses the theme of the individual and
society, his themes and techniques differ from that of Wurm's. The
compositions within his mixed media watercolors reflect a dynamic
engagement amongst individuals in all types of situations ranging from
nightclubs to art galleries to concerts. The artist captures the
zeitgeist of our times using these off-the-cuff snapshots that
reflects the collective energies of persons who gather together for a
common cause whether it be to engage with artwork in a formal setting
or watch a rock star icon go crazy or throwing rocks at the
authorities during political demonstrations. Karcz's sharp eye for
blending blurred details to reflect the anonymous identity of the
participants (not to be confused with Gerhard Richter's blurring
technique to reflect the ambiguity of historical interpretation) with
exacting delineation of environmental landmarks particularly the
architecture of streets and buildings. Each particular story within
his freeze frame "shots" hides the individual emotion and situation
for the story of the streets and the people, especially within
post-Communist Poland. Also there are sociological overtones to each
series especially with his studies of jazz musicians such as the
1960's drummer Max Roach, anarchists, or Middle Eastern immigrants
living in Europe. Karcz dissects the subcultures of humanity by his
art elevating the remarkable tales of the oppressed or marginalized
into the forefront of his seemingly naturalistic and photojournalist
approach to depicting how relationships are forged through social
movements as part of the larger fabric of history.

Jan Wurm graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and
received a Master's degree from the Royal College of Art in London.
Wurm's work has been exhibited in many galleries, including the Los
Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the Mandeville Art Gallery of the
University of California, San Diego, the Newport Harbor Art Museum Art
Rental Gallery, and Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco. She has
taught for the University of California Extension and the Art Studio
of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC).
Wurm divides her time between Berkeley, California, and Los Angeles
and is represented by House Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rafal Karcz was born in 1969 in Krakow, Poland. He graduated from Art
History Department of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the
Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. His works have been exhibited at
various venues including Galeria Promocyjna, Iao PROJECTS, The
Livingroom, Galeria BB, Beyond the Border International Contemporary
Art Fair, Galerie Born/Busse, Galerie Works, and Galeria Rafała
Korzeniowskiego. He works as a painter and photographer who
experiments with mixed media watercolors and belongs to the Polish and
American Societies of Pastelists.

HOUSE GALLERY is a contemporary art gallery devoted to conceptual
projects founded in March 2010.
The space, which represents artists such as Vincent Como, Tanja Kunz,
Emilie Duval, Walpa D'Mark, and Jon Coffelt, is located in downtown
Salt Lake City at 110 West Broadway in the basement of the Peery
Hotel.
The hours are Friday, 3pm - 8 pm; Saturday, 11 am - 5 pm; and by
appointment. For more information about the space or exhibitions, call
(801) 910-1736 or email: dunker@comcast.net.

Images of "A Bright Future"

2010-03-09T19:12:00.001-08:00

Press Release for Walpa D'Mark Solo Show

2010-02-25T02:36:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EXHIBITION: WALPA D'MARK|A BRIGHT FUTURE

Dates:
March 5 - March 27, 2010
Reception: Saturday, March 6: 4 pm - 9pm

The Livingroom is proud to announce a solo exhibition of Los Angeles based artist Walpa D'Mark, featuring his massive sculptures, installation art, and paintings. Drawing from his Nicaraguan roots, the artist creates DIY cardboard and mixed media maquettes of primitive monuments that explore the metaphor of the artist as God. Or
gods? With overtones of von Daniken's book "Chariots of the Gods,"
Jason Rhoades, and Mayan archaeology, the works combine mastery of
bright colors using collage and the search for spiritual loci within
our media-saturated lifestyles. D'Mark search for solitude of the
celebration of the individual artist as shaman or priest parallels the
potential fall of mankind from the state of grace as a positive act of
discovering ultimate freedom. His sculptures, similar to religious
icons, focus on the juxtaposition of figurative theological symbols
with fanciful abstraction that explores the decorative pattern of
cultural archetypes as well as the lost innocence which marks our
transition into a world where people write their realities rather than
absorbing its wondrous beauty. The artist's use of everyday materials
such as light bulbs, a table top, foam, and faux rocks implies that
art serves an alchemist's function where ordinary media such as glue
and paper can comprise spiritual work that is embedded in powerful
ideas about history, religion, archaeology, and poetry. D'Mark hopes
to instill a sense of awe within his viewers as they walk through
these all-encompassing artifacts like a cathedral of creativity.

In conjunction with D'Mark's installation art, there is a separate
presentation of the large-scale paintings of the artist. With a
lyrical and profoundly humorous palette, the artist examines the
themes of theological icons and Latin American history within the
context of a globalized world where the visual poet constructs a new
world from the most basic of archetypes ranging from the sun to the
earth. These landscapes of a seemingly pristine paradise reflect our
obsessive interest in the occult as a counterbalance to an
increasingly scientific world view. D'Mark's perception of our
mysterious universe demonstrates his fearless approach in the
portrayal of the passionate conflict between identifiable forms and
amorphous mysticism.

Walpa D'Mark is a sculptor, painter, curator, and installation artist
who lives and works in Torrance, California. He is a graduate of
California State University, Long Beach and Claremont Graduate
University. He has exhibited in the East Gallery at Claremont Graduate
University, Gallery 314, Greenleaf Gallery, Track 16 Gallery, High
Energy Construct, and Mark Moore Gallery. "A Bright Future" is D'Mark
first solo exhibition in Salt Lake City.

THE LIVINGROOM is a contemporary art salon devoted to conceptual
projects founded by Salt Lake City artists Julie Dunker and qi peng.
The space is located in the Holladay district at 2105 Fardown Avenue.
The hours are Friday, 3pm - 6pm; Saturday, 10 am-3 pm; and by
appointment. For more information, call (505) 228-1268 or email:
thelivingroom.art@gmail.com.

Installation Views of "Bunnies in Wonderland" by Emilie Duval

2010-02-13T09:21:00.001-08:00

The Livingroom Mentioned in February 2010 Issue of 15 Bytes

2010-02-11T20:52:00.001-08:00

Emilie Duval Featured in City Weekly

2010-02-03T19:34:00.001-08:00

The Livingroom Reviewed by Brian Staker in January 20, 2009 Issue of City Weekly

2010-01-20T19:45:00.001-08:00

Postcards for "Bunnies in Wonderland"

2010-01-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

Bunnies in Wonderland

2010-01-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EXHIBITION: EMILIE DUVAL|BUNNIES IN WONDERLAND

Dates:
February 5 - February 27, 2010
Reception: Saturday, February 6: 4 pm - 9pm

THE LIVINGROOM presents its third show entitled "Bunnies in Wonderland" by the French-American artist Emilie Duval which features both political/environmentalist paintings from her series "Extremely Unlikely" as well as two provocative pieces of video art called "My Big Pink Fck... Bunny" and "My BPFB is mad at me." In her uncharacteristic style of post-Marxist deconstruction and subversive design work, Duval mashes up mesmerizing compositions that involve lonely and potentially violent figures within a desolate consumerist landscape dominated by name brands such as Prada.

The artist will be creating an on-site installation inspired by the motif of the BPFB, which symbolizes the fertility of consumerist desire and boundless greed, here at The Livingroom in addition to experimental video projections. Also she will be attending the reception herself, having travelled from her hometown of Beaumont, Texas.

The video pieces of the work are featured online at http://www.youtube.com/thelivingroomart. Viewers can check here for footage of gallery receptions, artist installations, video art, and other visual tidbits.

Duval provides the following statements about her work:

"This series [Extremely Unlikely] represents places of conflict between two entities. The characters in the paintings show an act of domination between individuals. It is represented by the setting of men with provoking attitude.
The shapes and animals seem to be targeted as a reflection of the fragile stability of modern societies.
Those two entities maintain a delicate threat to avoid the real conflict of nature."

"In the video 'My Big Pink Fck... Bunny,' The bunny incarnates the image of regulatory power which has become fat, lazy and unconscious of the reality. At this point, the financial system is on the verge of collapse, investment returns were extravagant without any relation with microeconomics. The Regulations had the power of Deregulations. The bunny’s domination is overthrown by the child who takes power and kills him. As a natural state of living the resilient child returns to his occupation without caring much of the consequences of his act. The second video 'My BPFB is mad at me' features the system’s reversal. With fearlessness and power the bunny returns and kills back the child in a no man’s land where only luxury vestige - Prada shop - remains. At the end the bunny celebrates his victory with his allogenic."

Here the ambiguous combination of freewheeling satire on the excesses of capitalism with the visual slickness of complete/incomplete figuration and well-designed abstractions particularly with the signature outline of shadows carved from either positive or negative space explores contradictions within an artist's practice. Duval becomes fearless in becoming quite political without being didactic. For example, the moose imagery in her "Extremely Unlikely" series seem to represent the Everyman figure in the artist's medieval morality play warning us of the impending destruction of nature by lack of human contact with their forests and its paths. Within her explosive video works featuring the mutual destruction of a child who symbolizes the purity of a young boy losing his innocence through brutal murder and the bunny who symbolizes the manifest desires of the capitalist society molding individuals into primal luxury-munching robots. These video pieces mirror each other where man's contradictory desire and repulsion for material goods are intertwined. In her mysterious world, law and morality are two different objectives and the cynical optimism of her work seems to depict the continual tension between man and nature as well as high fashion and intellectualism.

Surprisingly, Duval's political stance remains ambiguous in each piece and essentially humanist with a sharp attention to carefully shaped details. The viewer will be able to explore a world where threats are common and legal regulations reshape Nature in its own imagery. There seems to be no escape from this deadly fatalism where animals are the object of the hunt of humankind rewriting the forests.

Emilie Duval, who is a conceptual painter and installation/video artist, was born in Paris, France in 1974. She is a graduate of law from the University Paris II Pantheon Assas and art history from the Ecole du Louvre Paris. Her cutting-edge works have been featured through the Slick Art Fair, The Dallas Contemporary, Galleri Urbane, the Houston Center for Photography, Blaffer Gallery, the Lawndale Art Center, Scope Miami Art Fair, Scope London Art Fair, the LAS Gallery, and the Art Generation Gallery. She is also represented by Pascal Vanhoecke Gallery in Paris. Duval was featured in Issue 72 of New American Paintings as well.

THE LIVINGROOM is a contemporary art salon devoted to conceptual projects founded by Salt Lake City artists Julie Dunker and qi peng. The space is located in the Holladay district at 2105 Fardown Avenue. The hours are Friday, 3pm - 6pm; Saturday, 10 am-3 pm; and by appointment. For more information, call (505) 228-1268 or email: thelivingroom.art@gmail.com.

The Livingroom Mentioned in January 2010 Issue of 15 Bytes

2010-01-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

Charles Fresquez- New work

2010-01-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

This new painting by Charles Fresquez is going to be on display at the Albuquerque Museum of Art.

Images from Emilie Duval's Forthcoming Show in February 2010

2010-01-02T10:52:00.001-08:00

East Coast Meets West Coast

2009-12-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EXHIBITION: CHARLES FRESQUEZ AND JAMES HUCKENPAHLER|EAST COAST MEETS WEST COAST

Dates:

January 8 - January 22, 2010

Reception: Friday, January 8: 3 pm - 8pm

THE LIVINGROOM is proud to present, East Coast Meets West Coast, a two-person exhibition featuring cutting-edge pieces by Charles Fresquez, a New Mexico minimalist painter, and James Huckenpahler, a digital painter based out of Washington D.C.

Charles Fresquez will be presenting a new set of his luminous cast acrylic and enamel works that include parallel and perpendicular lines of pastel hues. Reminding the viewer of a combination between color field and minimalist painting, the artist's paintings gently allude to the concept of light within the mechanical precision of electronic music such as Crystal Castles, Kraftwerk, Gyorgy Ligeti, and ADULT. With precisely engineered lines which are ultimately manmade marks,

Fresquez also evokes the neon sculptures of Dan Flavin and the monochrome white paintings of Robert Ryman while creating unique works embedded in a rigid formalism tempered by the softness of the slowly creeping colored lines in pinks, yellows, blues, etc. Other art historical references include a comparison between New Mexico abstraction and West Coast minimalism in light of the works of other artists such as John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Raymond Jonson, and Frederick Hammersley. As the light hits upon the smooth surfaces of these paintings, one can perceive the tension between heavy density of block-like hues held together by the mesh of wire-like structures.

As a contrast to Fresquez's handcrafted panels, James Huckenpahler is showing his newly created set of digital paintings executed strictly in black, grey, and white forms sweeping across the surface of his works. Originally intended as vinyl stickers created within Photoshop to be placed all around a city like abstract graffiti, the artist's printed works are designed in an unlimited edition that draws the viewer's attention into the plunging depths of seemingly random yet tightly mathematical architectures that depict otherworldly landscapes of the personal imagination resembling fractals and chaos theory. Huckenpahler's limited use of colors suggest that a subtle range of hues and forceful shapes can express a dynamic gamut of emotions. The artist's exciting application of new media techniques suggests that the future of painting can incorporate non-traditional approaches to produce a more traditional visual output of mesmerizing stature.

This two-person show offers a fascinating contrast between two rather impressive artists. Themes such as analog versus digital painting, minimalist lines versus maximalist curves, order versus cacophony, pastel colors versus greyscale colors all point to a playful standoff between the craftsman from the East Coast and the craftsman from the West Coast. The viewer can appreciate the stunning differences in methodology in studio practice which lead to beautifully rendered artworks, each with a unique fingerprint of style and conceptual focus.

Charles Fresquez, who is a minimalist painter, lives and works in Albuquerque and is a graduate of the University of New Mexico. His works have been exhibited in many venues including the Richard Levy Gallery, the Donkey Gallery, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, Queens Nails Projects, and the Albuquerque Museum. He is represented by the Richard Levy Gallery.

James Huckenpahler is a Washington D.C.-based artist who is a graduate from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. His innovative digital works have been shown in many places including the Fusebox, Charles Cowles Gallery, the Arlington Arts Center, Hemphill Fine Arts, and the Civilian Art Projects. He is represented also by Hemphill Fine Arts.

THE LIVINGROOM is a contemporary art salon devoted to conceptual projects founded by Salt Lake City artists Julie Dunker and qi peng. The space is located in the Holladay district at 2105 Fardown Avenue. The hours are Friday, 3pm-6pm; Saturday, 10am-3pm; and by appointment. For more information, call (505) 228-1268 or email: thelivingroom.art@gmail.com.