Carla Resnick & Nanxi Jiang
Matter/Regeneration
April 15–May 15, 2022
Artists' reception: Friday April 15, 5–7pm
Gallery Guide/Price List
Carla Resnick
Artist's Statement
After experiencing some profound losses in my life a few years ago, I turned to painting with bright colors to try to cheer myself up. I made a lot of paintings on paper, with bright, saturated color. I painted and painted, day and night. I filled my studio with stacks of paintings on paper. I mounted some on panel, for display in “Stories 8” at 1078 Gallery. I produced 30, 6” x 6” paintings, in 30 days for a show “30 x 30” at Blue Line Artis in Roseville, California. I stopped for a while, then I painted some more. I cataloged them, in a spreadsheet, noting the titles, dates, mediums, etc. Some of these paintings, as is often the case, just didn’t work out. At which point I turned to cutting them up and making collage. I made collage upon collage, with pieces of these former paintings. My studio filled with stacks of collages. Abstract, minimalist, three-piece, and five-piece collages. Gray collages. Bright collages. I kept working away, thinking about my losses, my deep sadness, isolation, and loneliness. And then the horrors of the pandemic really started sinking in. Around the world! Failed response by government, people lost their minds at the idea of having to wear a mask, seemingly endless death. There weren’t any adults in charge. Our forests were burning up. The air was choked with smoke. I was trapped inside. Everything about the situation left me feeling the world was absurd. My losses seemed rather small compared to this epic disaster unfolding across the globe, but they remained ever-present. I forgot how to talk to people. Small talk? What’s that? Most words became irrelevant. “Collage!” I would exclaim, as I glued pieces down. I gave up cataloging them in my spreadsheet. I mean, what future is there anyway? Who cares when I made this? Who is even going to survive our collective folly? I worked with my papers. I made more papers, painted them, drew patterns on them, cut them up, glued them down. I kept making artwork, and hours of time passed by. Hours spent deciding which slice of black paper I should put there. Hours ruminating on loss, yes, and hours trying to accept the irrationality of the human condition. Nanxi Jiang
Artist's Statement
I am keen on my surroundings, seeking beauty in the most trivial aspects of daily occurrences. I often take the opportunity to capture the subtlety of the fleeting encountering strangers and recapitulate their lives and perspectives. Such habit offers me a uniquely adapted lens filtering in threads of inspirations which later mature into my creative projects. In the exceptional period of continuous global confrontation with the epidemic, mankind has begun to continuously reflect on its relationship with nature. How to ensure that the future of mankind and the planet is more sustainable has become the most noteworthy and urgent proposition at the moment. On the issue of sustainable development, the beauty industry, which has left the impression of ''natural goodwill", does not seem to be under much pressure from public opinion compared to the fashion industry that people scorn. But in fact, the environmental problems caused by beauty products from production and processing, logistics and transportation, packaging to disposal, still cannot be ignored. The combination of recycling, reuse with textile bas become the direction I suppose to express. |