EVFA Solo Show, March/April 2011

Heaven is Not the Wide Blue Sky 
A Solo Exhibition by Erica Steiner

March/April 2011, Edgar Varela Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Reception: Saturday March 12th, 6-10pm (details below)

Heaven is not the wide blue sky, but the place where corporeality is begotten in the House of the Creative.   -Lu Yen 

My newest series of oil and gold leaf paintings, Heaven is Not the Wide Blue Sky, explores a collective longing to touch and know realms beyond, to transcend both time and existential uncertainty in the face of rapid environmental degradation on a globally unprecedented scale. The work dwells at the psychic intersection of imagined, archetypal pasts and paradoxically playful yet apocalyptic futures, at once seeking to confront the gravity of our current human predicament and simultaneously seeking refuge in the pursuit of deeper patterns and rhythms that pulse beneath the surface of all life, imbuing the material world with ecstatic beauty and life force.

Incorporating elements of landscape, ornamentation and abstraction, the paintings employ a highly detailed visual language drawn from a wide range of influences, including traditional Indian, Tibetan Buddhist and Aboriginal painting, psychedelic art, contemporary graphic design, Japanese landscape painting, medieval Catholic illuminated manuscripts, mid-century modernism, Mexican folk art, and Victorian fashion. The work is rendered in oil and gold leaf on canvas, in series of fifteen to twenty paintings, painted in many layers, over time. 

Information:

Reception: Saturday, March 12th, 6-10 pm
Show runs March 12th-April 9th, 2011

Edgar Varela Fine Arts, Los Angeles
727 S. Spring St. (downtown LA on gallery row)
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, noon to six pm
(213) 604-3634

www.edgarvarela.com


More sneak peaks of new work (detail shots) below: