Illuminated
December 4th – December 14th, 2019
Linda Sue Price
“I am a student of the ways we communicate and fail to communicate both verbally and physically—how we define each other through assumption and/or thinking it’s our fault or it’s never our fault and how we can live in these little worlds of ours. How we get stuck in trying to make things right or wrong, creating a false sense of security when the only thing for certain is change.
I communicate abstractly because that makes sense to me. To me the shapes represent the fluidity of change. When developing a piece or a series of work, I play with the glass, exploring and trying different combinations until I settle on a form that speaks to something I have been thinking about.
One of the things I enjoy about working with neon is the cast light. I challenge myself to find textures for the cast light to play with whether it is the background or foreground. I have used simple reflective backgrounds and but also am experimenting with more textured backgrounds. I like to play with acrylic rods and other elements in front of the neon to produce visual texture.”
David Isakson
“I am a small time operator. I find meaning in the contrast between opposites. My work is an effort to balance the difference of my schizophrenic mind and aging human body. I use technology against itself. I bring into question modern technology, as a point of reference. I bring antiquated technology, telephone parts, stereoscope viewers, antique drills, violins, piano parts, and animal bones, ad infinitum into a flux where the combination of materials begins to create, ex machina, meaning in and of itself. My given name is David Isakson. I weld and join materials to make humorous deconstructions out of everyday objects. My art is an outsider deconstruction that blurs the classical distinction between the inside and outside worlds, thought and feeling.”
Lisa Schulte
Neon light boasts two primary identities: a jubilance that reflects the radiance of midday, and an evening persona of romance and excitement, wherein surging flickers of curved encapsulated candles intrigue passersby. Lisa Schulte, an American sculptor born in Long Island, New York, has mastered the many “faces” of neon, earning her the moniker, “The Neon Queen.”
A woman of German, Irish, and Spanish descent, Lisa has lived the majority of her life in Los Angeles, California, while working (in some capacity) with light. After a childhood eye injury left the artist in darkness for several months of healing, the then seven year old not only emerged re-gifted with sight, she now possessed a fierce appreciation of the nuanced interactions between light and dark.
Years later, in 1984, Lisa would discover innovation in her medium was a necessary step toward the realization of her conceptualized projects. Finding she possessed the talent to work with the medium, Lisa studied in Kansas under Master Neon Tube Bender Freddie Elliot, and her growing prowess sparked the beginnings of “Nights of Neon” – a (35-plus years running) Los Angeles neon studio and boutique creative space providing custom neon pieces for films, events, and branding.
After amassing experience and exposure, Lisa shifted her focus to envisioning and creating intricate, abstract designs often absent in neon, and for the last decade, Lisa has turned inward to create personal pieces she has exhibited in museums and fine art galleries nationwide. This includes work exploring the artist’s passion for organic forms; work that provokes a broader dialogue pertaining to relativity and environmental adaptation. In a recent series, the artist externalized the metaphor of unity by pairing two disparate mediums – white neon and found wood – in a novel harmony; their differences highlighting the inherent beauty possessed by each. The artist is presently creating abstract pieces built from neon and wood.
In 2016, hybrid car company Karma Automotive, the embodiment of tech and nature, commissioned Lisa to create a sculpture that would capture the essence of their brand. The result, titled ‘The Undefeated Spirit,’ was a technically challenging sculpture comprised of curved wood and white neon, shaped to depict the car’s aerodynamic lines.
Lisa Schulte has merged artistic genres by collaborating with contemporary artists such as RISK, Gregory Siff and Cleon Peterson. In 2017, working with illustrator Brendan Donnelly, the artist constructed a vibrant, celebratory neon sign for Bulleit Frontier Whiskey which is currently on display in downtown Los Angeles.
