Also showing in our project room:

Against The Grain featuring new works from Dennis Hayes IV

Waterways featuring new works from Allison Sommers

(Los Angeles, CA – July 17th) Thinkspace Gallery is proud to present Raveled. This exhibition will feature new oil paintings from Brooklyn, NY based artist Stella Im Hultberg in her first solo exhibition with our gallery.

In this series of work, Hultberg has focused on works rich with layers of oil paint on canvas. She has worked on canvas in the past, but with this new series, she feels as though she is finally coming into her own. She wanted to explore outside her comfort zone of works on tea-stained paper and expand on her overall vision as a whole.

After several weeks of travel throughout her mother country of Korea and Japan, she got to thinking of her roots, but not just her own, but those of all people. The web that is created by the roots made in relations to other people, society and culture as a whole. The differences between us all, the connections, the elation we all share, as well as the comfort and disappointments that come with all relationships we hold dear.

By exploring the darker side of relationships in Raveled, Hultberg is aiming to explore the side of human nature that is suppressed or unspoken in most people.

She returned from her trip with a distinct lucidity, but at the same time, her emotions were tangled up more than ever before.

These works have served as an emotional catharsis of sorts for the artist. The works are her most work intensive to date, with more layers and a variety of new approaches to her work compared to past exhibitions. Through these works, Hultberg hopes to unravel the emotions she brought back from her trip, by putting them to canvas. Sure to be ongoing cathartic process, but that is what fuels great art in the first place.

Having grown up in Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan, Hultberg became a big fan of traditional Asian animation and was particularly drawn to the style featured in magna comics.

Her work is a blend of old and new styles and techniques. There are strong classical elements in her work as well as a clear Asian influence in regard to her choice of materials and her use of calligraphic marks. There is also a very strong connection to expressionist artists such as Gustav Klimpt and Egon Schiele. This unique blend of diverse influences give Hultberg a highly recognizable brand that makes her work highly sought after the world over.

After moving to the States, Hultberg studied Industrial Design at California State University. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has shown in galleries in San Francisco, Portland, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle and Los Angeles.

Website: http://www.stellaimhultberg.com/
Live Journal: http://in-spite-of-all.livejournal.com/
Raveled sneak peek preview: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157606096251132/detail/

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Also opening on Fri, August 8th in our project room:
Against the Grain - Dennis Hayes IV

Dennis Hayes IV:
With the exception of his studies at Alfred University, artist Dennis Hayes IV has dwelled in the aftermath of industrialized blue collar cities (Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan) his entire life. Hayes pulls a great amount of inspiration from these rust belt metropolises along with scientific and technical approaches of the naturalist arts movement, influences of niche counter cultures and his background in industrial design. He has taken all these elements and integrated them into a signature style of harvesting found materials to create subtle, but politically, environmentally, and culturally charged multi-layered "portraits" of living organisms. The use of symbolism through geometry and composition add a highly graphic and textured environment in which his characters reside within the image. His work has been gaining demand and has lead to exhibitions in such cities as Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Portland, Toronto, Montreal and Hamburg with such esteemed galleries as Gallery 1988, Limited Addiction, Compound Gallery and C-POP.

Artist website: http://www.dennishayesiv.com/

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AND select new works on view on the small wall in our project room:
Waterways – new works from Allison Sommers

Allison Sommers:
Allison Sommers is a visual artist working and living in Charlottesville, Virginia. Working mostly in gouache, she creates complicated and intricate worlds with a sharp wit and a penchant for nonsensical combinations. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in History.

Sommers’ intricate works of a world all her own are quickly gaining a loyal following of fans and as a result, an ever growing collector base who eagerly anticipate each new series she creates.

Look for a full solo show in our project room from Sommers in May 2009 and numerous group show the nation over between now and then.

Artist journal: http://allisonsommers.typepad.com/
Artist Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/on_a_boutade/