Laura Korman Gallery will present a new exhibition featuring artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann in the gallery’s forthcoming exhibition, CAULDRON. The exhibition is on view through Dec. 15, 2015 with a public reception this Saturday, Oct. 24, from 5-8 p.m.
Washington, D.C.-based artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann’s current work intertwines an abstract medley of vivacious color and intricate bold line. Using acrylic, sumi ink, and silk-screening, Mann’s explosive compositions surge and splatter across delicate white yupo paper forming abstract panoramas.
“My paintings show how patterned, highly-wrought, decorative elements coalesce from the chaos and contingency of an organic environment – and how they dissolve into that environment again,” says Mann.
Mann begins each of her large-scale compositions with stains of color, pouring diluted acrylic, ink and water onto paper as it lies on the floor of her studio. She then gradually builds up organic forms working from the chance evaporations and shapes left behind.
Flower petals, leaves, pom poms from Beijing opera costuming, and sequined patterns inspire ornately detailed forms that are repeated until they too appear organic. These elements multiply, proliferating as a simultaneously elegant and grotesque disease – spreading across the paper like the undulating bacteria of a petri dish.
While born in Wisconsin, Mann grew up moving every two to three years as the daughter of a Foreign Service officer. Living in Beijing and Guangzhou, China, Tel Aviv, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States, she says her upbringing and biracial background largely inspires her interests in fragmentation and hybridization.
“I think of my work as baroque abstract: a celebration of the abundance of connections and clashes that can be found in the disparate mess of matter in the world,” says Mann.
CAULDRON explores the delicate threshold between sensuous chaos and detailed control. Acting in the spirit of Jackson Pollock and other American abstract expressionists before her, Mann’s spontaneous techniques are augmented by her thoughtful incorporation of detailed ink and pattern that produce a visual melting pot of cultural influences at once molten and wrought with possibility.
Laura Korman Gallery is excited to host The Hunny Buns in collaboration with artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann’s at Saturday’s reception from 5-8pm. Harpist Charissa Barger will play as well as vocalist Savi Labensart.
Laura Korman Gallery is located at 2525 Michigan Ave, Ste D2, Santa Monica. For more information, visit laurakormangallery.com.
