Award-winning painter Pam Douglas explores the cycle of birth and death in the “The Long Thread.” The exhibition opens September 2, 2014 (through September 27, 2014) at Bergamot Station’s TAG Gallery in Santa Monica and features seven original paintings on silk and rice paper. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, September 6th from 5-8 PM and the Artists’ Talk will take place Saturday, September 20th.
These large pieces—some almost 7’ high–continue her experimentation with delicate raw silk, but also introduce natural fibers such as textured rice paper, and the rougher textures of string, twine and rope, which are applied to the surface to create evocative shapes, as well as hung to create forms and patterns with the negative space. Working with free-hanging fabric allowed her to explore larger dimensions, while the cord, twine and rope allowed her to explore three-dimensional space.
“While making this series, a baby was born in my family, and a friend was dying,” says Douglas. “I hadn’t planned a cycle of life theme, but as the pieces evolved, the show became a metaphor. The underlying meanings were unconscious at first, then intentional as I searched for titles.”
As with all her previous series, Douglas reveals her admiration for Asian art, using inks and water-based mediums, silk, and rice paper. Several of these pieces hang from wood dowels that recall Japanese and Chinese scroll paintings, which at first appear abstract, but on a deeper level, reveal a story about the continuous cycle of birth, death, and birth.
Douglas, whose work is widely collected, had a 6-month exhibit at the California African American Museum and has also been exhibited at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her work has been critically acclaimed by James Bae, who wrote, “These paintings are stunning tropes of singular instances… never repetitive but endlessly unpredictable… transcending the scope of traditional arguments on how nature can be represented. Like fire, they have their own way of being alive.”
TAG Gallery is located at Bergamot Station 2525 Michigan Avenue D3 Santa Monica 310-829-9556 www.taggallery.netAbout Post Author
