The Creator Project Features Artists Stella Im Hultberg & Audrey Kawasaki

Creators Project Audrey Kawasaki

The Creators Project features the beautiful work of Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg, highlighting their current exhibition at Thinkspace Gallery and an excellent look into the artist themselves.

Visit The Creators Project website for the full article.

“Her paintings follow a single illusive muse: an ageless, erotically charged girl who is reinvented and reimagined in each composition.” – The Creators Project regarding Audrey Kawasaki’s work.

Audrey Kawasaki’s ‘Interlude’ & Stella Im Hultberg’s ‘Hollow Resonance’ are currently on view now through December 3rd.

Audrey Kawasaki’s ‘Interlude’ & Stella Im Hultberg ‘Hollow Resonance’ Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception
From Left to Right: Mari Inukai, Stella Im Hultberg, and Audrey Kawasaki

The doors to Audrey Kawasaki’s ‘Interlude’ and Stella Im Hultberg’s ‘Hollow Resonance’ opened at 5:00pm to let in the long line who was anxiously waiting to purchase new print releases from Audrey and Stella. The gallery was packed with Audrey and Stella fan’s admiring their stunning new body of work from 5:00pm till long past doors at 9:00pm.

Audrey Kawasaki’s exhibition sold out before doors with four exclusive drawings  reserved for the opening night. The fours drawings went quickly and were picked up by 4 special collectors who were within the first 15 people to purchase prints.  There are still a few pieces available from Stella Im Hultberg‘s beautiful show ‘Hollow Resonance’ inspired by dreams and her current relationship with her mother and motherhood. Make sure to check out our interview with Stella Im Hultberg for more background on her current work.

Both exhibitions are on view now until December 3, 2016.

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Im Hultberg Opening Reception

 

Audrey Kawasaki’s “Interlude” Opening November 12th

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Audrey Kawasaki
“Interlude”
November 12 – December 3

Thinkspace is pleased to present new works by Audrey Kawasaki in Interlude. This highly anticipated exhibition is her first with the gallery in LA since 2011. Based in Los Angeles, the Japanese-American painter is known for her erotically charged figurative works and the consistency of her highly sought after style. She chases a ghostly and forever evasive muse, always in search of the same cagey persona. Reinvented endlessly through mutable guises and incarnations, Kawasaki pulls “her” from beneath and within the surface of panel in what can only be described as an exorcism or a labor of love.

Born in Los Angeles to Japanese parents, Kawasaki grew up drawn between two worlds, immersed in Japanese culture while growing up in America. As a result, her childhood experience was divided in some ways, informing a sensibility that permeates her work still in its unique combination of Eastern and Western aesthetics. She grew up with manga comics, which ultimately inspired her to draw, and anime, and lists them still among her influences. Her illustrative style and preference for clean line work are equally informed by a love of European Art Nouveau. The wide-eyed muse that guides her hand clearly draws from both figurative traditions, while her use of ornate graphic motifs, organic imagery, and curvilinear lines feels indebted to the likes of Mucha and Klimt, also among her inspirations. Despite these clear antecedents, her work combines them into a cohesive style that feels entirely unique and personal.

Kawasaki’s paintings are firmly rooted in drawing. She begins each work with pencil on wood panel, her preferred ground for its organic warmth and natural inconsistencies. Once the drawing is complete and sealed with a gel medium, she coaxes the figure to the surface, bringing it to life gradually with multiple layers of oil paint. A perfectionist with a penchant for luminous and translucent skins and gradient color transitions, the paintings, and the fugitive within them, reveal their debt to process. With a preference for muted palettes, though she has recently experimented with bolder hues, Kawasaki uses the panel as an element in her compositions, allowing the grain to show through the pellucid paint.

The undeniable eroticism of Kawasaki’s works has garnered some controversy given the precocious innocence and ambiguously ageless quality of her ghost. The figure Kawasaki tirelessly chases, however, is inextricably linked to the satisfaction of personal fiction. Though not an alter-ego per se, “she” is an expression of the artist’s freedom and a grounds for fantasy and desire, exempt from the reality of social constraints. She is bold, at times vulgar, and at others vulnerable, a vehicle through which Kawasaki has explored feminine expressions of sexuality.

The coexistence of contradictory elements is central to the staying power of Kawasaki’s scintillating universe. Graphic yet ethereal, her paintings are innocent and dark, hopeful and morbid, controlled and ecstatic. Like any good haunting, the ghost refuses to relent.

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A Peak into Audrey Kawasaki’s Studio for ‘Interlude’ Coming in November

One of our most anticipated shows of the season, Audrey Kawasaki’s Interlude, is only a month away! Kawasaki’s stunning work continues to grow with her ethereal girls and dreamy layers. Fortunately, we have a taste of the upcoming show and a peak into her studio courtesy of photographer Jordana Sheara.

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The opening reception for Interlude is Saturday, November 12th from 6 to 9pm.