Ruth Bachofner Gallery
EXHIBITION
ANNOUNCEMENT





Jane Park Wells, "Ganggangsullae" (triptych), 1991,
acrylic, collage on canvas, 72 x 135"

Jane Park Wells "Reflections"
Margaret Griffith "Local Intersections"


October 22 - November 19, 2011
Reception: Saturday, October 22, 4-6pm


Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue, G2
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Phone: (310) 829-3300
Fax: (310) 449-0070
Email: gallery@bachofner.com
Website: www.ruthbachofnergallery.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday: 10am-5:30pm




In her current body of work, Jane Park Wells combines her long-standing approach of working within self-imposed grid systems, with a tribute to Korean and American cultural traditions. Three large scale paintings make reference to different forms of traditional Korean dance. The various dances are associated with farming traditions, class struggles and the roles women have historically played in the cultural dynamics of Korea, both past and present; in Korea and America.  Wells adapts these cultural practices into her work both in a physical and narrative manner.

The second chapter of the exhibition includes work inspired by American quilting. These works are also created using a grid system but take a much more hard edge approach than the dance-inspired paintings. In this series, titled Reflections, Wells creates wood-based works which follow a quintessential American quilting pattern called ‘log cabin’, where rectilinear forms are arranged in a stepped formation.

Through her two overlapping approaches, Wells joins narratives of East and West and injects the work with her own biographical narrative. Two different cultural customs associated with female bonding, creativity and expression are brought together by Wells, who, as a native of Korea and resident of America is immersed in dual ethnic and cultural identity.

Jane Park Wells studied received her art education from Scripps College (BFA) and Claremont Graduate University (MFA).

 

Jane Park Wells, "Pungmul" (diptych), 2011,
acrylic, collage on canvas, 90 x 90"



For this exhibition, Margaret Griffith produced a series of watercolor ink drawings and a paper installation.
In her work, Griffith bends, warps, fractures and otherwise manipulates the grid form to create an array of planar and spatial structures influenced by urban and natural forms. Griffith intricately renders gridded nets, woven into various formations that create a sense of continuous movement. Depending on how the drawings are read, some have a weighty architectural grounding, reminiscent of urban street patterns or latticed structural foundations. Others are thinner, web-like planes that seem malleable and mimic undulating swells of water or other natural topographies.

The exhibition also includes a paper-based installation, where the artist translates her grid-based work into a three dimensional floor piece. Using large sheets of heavy paper, she cut the paper into patterns that replicate gates found in her Highland Park neighborhood. The ordinary, architectural features are stripped of function and context, and transformed into a riot of undulating grids and swirls.

Griffith’s drawings and installation together re-imagine structural and spatial relationships through the filter of her observations of the urban and natural environment. Impenetrable boundaries are rendered soft and delicate and orderly grids are given a sense of flowing movement to symbolize passages and boundaries in time, space and spirit.




Margaret Griffith, "Eddies," 2011,
watercolor pencil, ink on paper, 39.25 x 49.5"
 

Margaret Griffith, "Eddies" (detail), 2011,
watercolor pencil, ink on paper, 39.25 x 49.5"