William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica will host an opening reception this Saturday night for “Shape Shift,” a group exhibition featuring new work from four contemporary artists, Charles Arnoldi, Dawn Arrowsmith, Michael Braden, and Peter Lodato.
The reception will be held from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the gallery.
The term “Shape Shift” refers to the ability of a being to physically transform from one form to another, usually by way of magic.
For the gallery’s purposes, it points directly to each artist’s ability to translate the complex essences of our world into elegantly minimal geometric forms.
Utilizing expressive color to define geometric spaces and convey senses of atmosphere, each of the artists has created a unique visual language – the “magic” they employ – to transform blank canvases into nuanced perceptions and evocative compositions.
When one takes time to really look, what initially appear to be simple binary compositions, limited to shape and color, magically transform to nuanced perceptions of powerful complexity.
Charles Arnoldi was described early on as an artist who “draws in space.”
That sense of elegance and poetry has continued to inform the artist’s work as it has restlessly evolved through a multiplicity of media and styles.
Throughout his long career, the artist has been fascinated with shape and pattern to express advanced formal concerns.
These new works are perhaps the most expressively minimal to date.
Dawn Arrowsmith’s paintings are meditations in color. It has been said that each is a kind of minimalist luxury – pure, distilled, economical, but also rich, luscious, erotic.
Her work is intuitive, greatly influenced by Buddhist philosophy and by her travels to the Orient.
Michael Braden has forever been fascinated with what he calls transitional environments, the spaces of the in-between, the point of discord and discourse, of prospect and refuge. The line of the drawing becomes a transitional space, something to encounter.
Adhering to reductive, often binary field/ground compositions, Peter Lodato’s paintings resonate with the viewer like optical tuning forks.
As one adjusts to the subtle rhythms within and between the paintings in this series, there is a palpable shift in consciousness and perception – as the aesthetic experience becomes a meditative one.
This exhibition will run through Feb. 22. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm.
William Turner Gallery is located at 2525 Michigan Ave. E1 (Bergamot Station), Santa Monica.
For more information, call 310.453.0909 or visit www.williamturnergallery.com.
