Colorspace

Carlos Grasso

Ariane Leiter | Margaret Korisheli | Barry Frantz

October 1 – December 4, 2022

Opening Reception: October 1st, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Color
space

Carlos Grasso

Ariane Leiter

Margaret Korisheli

Barry Frantz

 

October 1 –
December 4, 2022

Opening Reception:
October 1st,
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

15oct1:00 pmArtist Talkwith Carlos Grasso

19nov1:00 pm2:00 pmVisual Perception of ArtTalk with Jerry Clifford, Ph.D.

Carlos Grasso, Focusing on The Center, acrylic on handmade paper, 22” x 22″

Carlos Grasso is becoming more widely known these days for his “Mind Tapestries” series and in the past for his innovative “shredded” paintings series which he called “Canvas Deconstruction”. The coming show “COLORSPACE” at the Blackboard Gallery (Studio Channel Islands) in Camarillo will present the most recent artworks done in the past two to three years of these varied series which intrinsic nature is the pure interplay of colors, shapes and form. The recent creation of the Colorspace Room is a circular 46 ft diameter circular room with changing lights depicting modern mandalas.

A native Argentinian, Carlos never imagined he would spend more than 45 years abroad in France and the U.S. making art, gaining an American passport and three children, and all that after a promising professional career as a musician. Over the last 35 years, not only has he transitioned from music to making art full time, he’s also shifted from representational works (which he studied with master David Leffel) to abstraction, mixed media, installations and conceptual art.

In his studio in Ojai, California, one encounters a display of torn canvases, found objects and disproportionally big brushes – the tools of an inquisitive mind. With these, Carlos tells manifold stories and implements varied techniques.

He participated in numerous Museum and Gallery solo and group shows: LA Art Show – The Museum of Ventura County – The Santa Paula Museum – Ojai Valley Museum – Art Share L.A. – OCCCA (Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts) – Building Bridges (Santa Monica, LA, Bergamot Station) – San Diego Art Institute, and many more. His collector base spreads throughout the United States.

“I usually greet collectors, curators and visitors to my studio with a “welcome to my playground!” My art requires the essential element of play, whether designing my own colorful modern mandalas on paper and canvas, cutting and shredding painted the canvas by hand, or assembling found objects on textured panels. The more I get out of my own way, the more creativity flows unobstructed and strangely enough, the more I control my medium.

Artists—in all branches and disciplines—are the preeminent voice of both the collective and the individual unconscious. Art brings to the surface, to our awareness, all the processes that run deep, embedded, and often silently ignored within. As the ancient philosopher once said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.“ – Carlos Grasso

Official portrait photo of the Artist

Ariane Leiter, Reef Beginnings

Ariane was born in NYC in 1958. Began working with clay as a freshman in high school. She attended University of Wisconsin/Madison where she received a BS in Art Education. Traveled in Europe for three years and worked in a British pottery, then moved to California. While earning a MA in ceramic sculpture from San Francisco State University took her first foundry (bronze casting) class. Worked on large scale ceramic sculpture. Relocated to the central coast of California in 1988. Taught ceramics at Cuesta College for seven years, during which time worked in the Cuesta foundry as much as possible. Was able to produce large bronze sculpture. Spent the next seventeen years as a firefighter and paramedic. Since retirement from emergency services taught three summer (ceramic) sessions at Cuesta. Started working again in bronze at the Cuesta foundry, more recently exploring the combination of clay and bronze.

snow fence is a fragment of childhood memories. While skiing in upstate New York, I remember seeing many remnants of snow fences along roads and in the ski areas. These were made of wood, often half submerged in drifts and rotting away. The same thing could be observed on east coast beaches. Although one was in snow and the other in sand, they both were constructed an attempt to control nature, to regulate and direct drifting particles. For some reason these images stayed with me over fifty years. While traveling I am always fascinated by ancient walls and fences. The one I see the most these days is the border wall between the US and Mexico, an unsuccessful and misguided attempt to control people, as elusive as grains of sand or snowflakes.

reef beginnings emerged from my longstanding love of the ocean. Years of diving, snorkeling and surfing have kept me in and under the water. I have been lucky enough to dive where the reef is still alive, observing the fragile starts of coral. I love that wrecks and sometimes other trash dumped in the ocean can serve as an anchor for a new coral reef to form.

Both pieces are an attempt to connect two media with which I have worked in a meaningful way. I enjoy the different properties of clay and bronze.

Margaret Korisheli

Margaret Korisheli, Ten Bowling Pins, Bronze, Installation dimensions variable

   

Margaret Korisheli teaches sculpture at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. Her artworks, predominantly in steel, bronze, and mixed media, have been influenced by a rich exchange of ideas with students and faculty and engagement with historical and contemporary art. Korisheli prefers her imagery and symbolism be open-ended with working class and pop culture imagery such as wheelbarrows, bread, bowling pins, and ball peen hammers providing counterpoints to more abstract ruminations on humor, humanness, and exploration of form and space.

   

Barry Frantz

Barry Frantz, (from left to right) Spike, Eloise, and Stumpy, Bronze and iron