Mari Eastman
02 Apr - 07 May 2011
© Mari Eastman
Untitled, 2011
Oil, flashe, pen, glitter, thumb-tack, tie-dyed cut canvas on canvas
23 x 20 inches
Untitled, 2011
Oil, flashe, pen, glitter, thumb-tack, tie-dyed cut canvas on canvas
23 x 20 inches
MARI EASTMAN
Objects, Decorative and Functional
2 April - 7 May, 2011
Mari Eastman’s paintings, drawings, installations, and sculptures willfully engage the fictions of the world around us. Culling from such varied sources as textiles, Chinese art and design, high fashion magazines, contemporary culture, and art history, Eastman’s art takes us down a logical albeit disturbing path that easily segues from images of cute animals to images of the appartniks of money and power, the destructions of the Iraq war and nightmare of Hurricane Katrina. Thrilling and amorous, sickening and depressing, her works are rooted in traditional subject matter and technique turned upside-down with punked-out additions in glitter, sewing, jewelry, and cut canvas.
The hiccup in Eastman’s work is her suggestion that we absorb these fictions in their entirety. Caught in an intoxicating bind between mass-media representation and the stutters of its construction, Eastman's work encourages critical dialogue about the value we place on objects – be they functional or decorative, or both. In the painting Untitled (2011), Eastman depicts a topographic portrait of a woman’s face, replete with manipulated, cut and pinned canvas, glitter, and ink drawing over subtle color washes – the effect is one of multiplicity and simplicity combined. In the bronze, clay and stone sculptures on view, Eastman deftly balances their object-ness with image – their function as candlesticks with their inherent decorative qualities – to deliver a fresh perspective on the debate.
Mari Eastman received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum; Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach); Contemporary Arts Forum (Santa Barbara); Honolulu Academy of Art; and the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles). She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Emily Tsingou Gallery (London); Karyn Lovegrove Gallery (Los Angeles); Sies + Höke (Dusseldorf, Germany); Sprüth and Magers Projekte (Munich, Germany); and Galleri Nicolai Wallner (Copenhagen, Denmark).
Objects, Decorative and Functional
2 April - 7 May, 2011
Mari Eastman’s paintings, drawings, installations, and sculptures willfully engage the fictions of the world around us. Culling from such varied sources as textiles, Chinese art and design, high fashion magazines, contemporary culture, and art history, Eastman’s art takes us down a logical albeit disturbing path that easily segues from images of cute animals to images of the appartniks of money and power, the destructions of the Iraq war and nightmare of Hurricane Katrina. Thrilling and amorous, sickening and depressing, her works are rooted in traditional subject matter and technique turned upside-down with punked-out additions in glitter, sewing, jewelry, and cut canvas.
The hiccup in Eastman’s work is her suggestion that we absorb these fictions in their entirety. Caught in an intoxicating bind between mass-media representation and the stutters of its construction, Eastman's work encourages critical dialogue about the value we place on objects – be they functional or decorative, or both. In the painting Untitled (2011), Eastman depicts a topographic portrait of a woman’s face, replete with manipulated, cut and pinned canvas, glitter, and ink drawing over subtle color washes – the effect is one of multiplicity and simplicity combined. In the bronze, clay and stone sculptures on view, Eastman deftly balances their object-ness with image – their function as candlesticks with their inherent decorative qualities – to deliver a fresh perspective on the debate.
Mari Eastman received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum; Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach); Contemporary Arts Forum (Santa Barbara); Honolulu Academy of Art; and the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles). She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Emily Tsingou Gallery (London); Karyn Lovegrove Gallery (Los Angeles); Sies + Höke (Dusseldorf, Germany); Sprüth and Magers Projekte (Munich, Germany); and Galleri Nicolai Wallner (Copenhagen, Denmark).