The Santa Monica College Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery on Tuesday opened “Stupor,” an exhibition of paintings by Los Angeles artist Carlson Hatton, who draws on art history, pop culture, philosophy, design, and fashion to create his works.
An opening reception will be held this Saturday, Feb. 22, from 6 pm to 8 pm.
The show will be open to the public through Saturday, March 29.
Describing Hatton’s work, writers at the gallery commented, “The layering created by the diaphanous fields in Hatton’s work often dissolves figure and ground, signaling a visual denouement, where images collapse and coalesce into a pulsating plane or event horizon, then expand with illusory effects that deconstruct their source material in revelatory ways. The result exposes a rich, brightly hued world that glows above, below, or perhaps in between the everyday iteration of forms.”
Hatton is a tenured professor on the Art faculty at Santa Monica College, where he teaches drawing.
He completed a Laureate program at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands, after a Master’s program at the Ateliers in Amsterdam, and recently participated in an arts residency program at Da Wang Culture Highland in Shenzhen, China.
“I’m interested in the slippery quality attached to the language of advertisement that seems to expire the moment it’s produced,” Hatton said. “My landscapes and figures dwell within that rich aftermath; reproducing and reconfiguring to create alternate environments with re-contextualized echoes of the vaguely familiar. Weaving together watercolor washes, acrylic, graphite, and oil, I strive to create layers that defy space while simultaneously creating pockets to fall into.
“I construct images and narratives derived from a psychotic reality that has lost visual coherence. My work explores the psychedelic mass of seemingly available and inexhaustible visuals and histories. I’m fascinated in our shared visual lexicon and its state of continuous construction that becomes denser and more impenetrable through constant development, re-visitation and re-appropriation.”
SMC’s Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery is located at the SMC Performing Arts Center at 1310 11th Street (corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and 11th Street), Santa Monica. Exhibits, gallery talks, and opening receptions are free.
Gallery hours are noon to 5 pm Tuesday through Friday and 11 am to 4 pm Saturday. The gallery will be closed March 7 and 18. For more information, call 310.434.3434.
