OPENING RECEPTION: 1st THURDAY, AUGUST 3rd | FROM 5-8pm
Sullivan Goss is proud to announce 20 years of working with the artist NICOLE STRASBURG! A solo exhibition titled NICOLE STRASBURG: Surfacing is planned, to be accompanied by a soft-bound exhibition catalog.
Over two decades, Nicole’s early palette of muted, earthy colors have been joined by juicier oranges, yellows, and greens. Her first pools of swirly abstractions indicating frothy seafoam and billowy clouds now vie with graphic linear presentations of the sea’s horizon in clear Western light. Waves can now be depicted not just as brushy patterns of aquatic turbulence but as rhythmic stripes of color. She is pushing herself to evolve; to define new forms for relating her experience of the Pacific ocean.
Says the artist, “By deconstructing and examining the fundamental structures within each composition, I am seeking what makes a landscape truly captivating. SURFACING represents more than simply emerging into the sunlight. It signifies a return to travel, adventure, and the exploration of new horizons and vistas. Even beyond that notion, “surfacing” symbolizes the act of resurfacing to observe what has changed and what remains unchanged, scrutinizing our patterns of daily existence.”
Long associated with 12 x 12 inch paintings on birch panels that seem to float away from the white walls of the gallery, the artist has, in the last two years, adopted a slightly larger square format of 14 x 14 inch panels with beautifully-finished wood sides. Impressive suites of paintings in both formats can be seen and purchased in this special exhibition. They will be joined by a focused presentation of larger paintings that revel in the endless forms and colors offered by those places where ocean, sky, and land meet.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Nicole Strasburg has been represented by Sullivan Goss since 2003. Since then, her work has been included in three dozen exhibitions, eight of which were solo shows. Nicole was part of The River’s Journey group that documented the Santa Ynez River with shows at regional museums and galleries. She currently shows with five galleries around the U.S. and Mexico. The artist will be present at the 1st Thursday reception on August 3rd.
Making my way in to see Nicole Strasburg’s new Sullivan Goss exhibition Surfacing, diverse enticements were there to behold in this spatially generous, three-gallery-deep art space. This summer’s triple play of shows includes Holli Harmon’s intriguingly multifaceted To Feast on Clouds and the seasonal group show spritzer dubbed Summer Fling in the large middle space, including colorful, eye-buzzing works by Penelope Gottlieb, Robert Townsend, and one of Hank Pitcher’s fetching surfboard “portraits.”
By association, Strasburg’s conceptually elastic variations on seascape paintings should also qualify as summery fare. And yet these seaside scenarios, taken individually and as a variegated and integrated ensemble, can take on introspective and artistically adventurous sub-turns, far from the realm of idle beachgoer’s escapism.
TWELVE GOUACHE PAINTINGS ON FABRIANO WATERCOLOR PAPER may be Holli Harmon’s crown jewel. Each one features a month of the year reproduced from an 1866 Farmer’s Almanac, when hand labor began to be replaced with machine farming. Each piece, inspired by her sketchbook, represents a month of the year at the Jalama Canyon Ranch, floating over deep blue cyanotype prints made using autochthonous vegetation.
Two shows open July 28 at Sullivan Goss: 1) Holli Harmon’s To Feast on Clouds: “An impressive group of 89 paintings of clouds rendered onto vintage tableware will take over the walls of one of the gallery’s spaces. The accumulation of clouds from sunny to stormy and everything in between creates a conversation about water, where it comes from and how it works in relation to the food we grow that eventually ends up on our tables.”
Nicole Strasburg’s Surfacing: “Long associated with 12 x 12 inch paintings on birch panels that seem to float away from the white walls of the gallery, the artist has, in the last two years, adopted a slightly larger square format of 14 x 14 inch panels with beautifully-finished wood sides. Impressive suites of paintings in both formats can be seen and purchased in this special exhibition. They will be joined by a focused presentation of larger paintings that revel in the endless forms and colors offered by those places where ocean, sky, and land meet.”
