Jae Hwa Yoo - "Wind City" - 2010, acrylic on canvas (photo courtesy of the artist)

For Immediate Release:
November 12, 2010

Beacon Arts Presents
Densities: Line Becoming Shape, Shape Becoming Object
An Exhibition
Curated by Peter Frank
Friday, December 10, 2010 – Sunday, January 30, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CA — Beacon Arts continues its Critics-as-Curators series with Densities: Line Becoming Shape, Shape Becoming Object curated by respected art writer Peter Frank, opening Friday, December 10, 2010. The exhibition features works in a range of media by artists Philippa Blair, Ran Harari, Tom Jenkins, Joel King, John White, and Jae Hwa Yoo, all with a sensibility that favors visual complexity driven by a profusion of active linear forms.  Densities runs from December 10, 2010 to January 30, 2011.  Exhibition special events include an opening party on Friday, December 10, 5:00 – 8:00pm; an open house on Saturday, January 22, 11:00am – 6:00pm; and a closing event on Sunday, January 30, 11:00am – 4:00pm, which will include a catered brunch and a panel discussion.  Beacon Arts is located at 808 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302.  Regular gallery hours are from 1:00pm to 6:00pm Thursday through Saturday, Sundays 1:00pm – 4:00pm.  The gallery will be closed for the holidays from December 24, 2010 to January 4, 2011.  Most events are free unless otherwise stated.  For additional information please call 310-621-5416 or visit http://www.beaconartsbuilding.com as well as http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inglewood-CA/Beacon-Arts-Building/129817703733091?v=info.

Densities: Line Becoming Shape, Shape Becoming Object brings together six established and mid-career artists who work in various media and in different styles but with a shared sensibility. That sensibility favors visual complexity driven by a profusion of active linear forms. The artworks themselves can be called abstract, but still brim with references to the observed world. All the artists live or have worked in Southern California, but their aesthetic is as reminiscent of work associated with Northern California (such as that of William T. Wiley and other Funk artists), New York (think Jackson Pollock, for example), or Europe (the elaborate painted images of CoBrA artists such as Pierre Alechinsky and Asger Jorn come to mind, as do Surrealist automatists such as Joan Miro and Andre Masson). In fact, this approach can be found in “high” and “folk” art alike the world over, and half the artists in Densities come originally from the Eastern Hemisphere. The artists work in oil and acrylic, wood and ink, collage and photo media.  For sample images from the show, please see http://gallery.me.com/lynnhasty#100036

“Life is complex, and life in Southern California, genial as it may be, is especially complex. In their art these six artists have manifested both the intricacy of their own minds and of the elaborate social and topological environment they share with us. You can almost see your house from here,” says Frank.

Beacon Arts Building (photo credit: Dave Teel Photography)

Peter Frank, Critic-as-Curator –
Peter Frank is art critic for the Huffington Post and Adjunct Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum. He has served as Editor of THEmagazine Los Angeles and Visions Art Quarterly and as critic for Angeleno magazine and The LA Weekly. Frank was born in 1950 in New York, where he wrote art criticism for The Village Voice and The SoHo Weekly News, and moved to Los Angeles in 1988. Frank contributes articles to numerous publications and has written many catalogues for one person and group exhibitions. Frank has also organized numerous theme and survey shows, including Driven to Abstraction: Southern California and the Non-Objective World, 1950-1988, for the Riverside Art Museum; Artists’ Books USA, Mapped Art: Charts, Routes, Regions, and Line and Image: The Northern Sensibility in Recent European Drawing, all for Independent Curators Inc.; Fluxus Film and Video for the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid; Young Fluxus for Artists’ Space in New York; To the Astonishing Horizon for Los Angeles Visual Arts; Southern Abstraction for the Raleigh (NC) City Gallery of Contemporary Art; The Theater of the Object, 1958-1972 for New York’s Alternative Museum; Visual Poetry for the Otis/Parsons Art Institute in Los Angeles; Multiple World for the Atlanta College of Art; and, most notably, 19 Artists – Emergent Americans, the 1981 Exxon National Exhibition mounted at the Guggenheim Museum. Frank has taught at Pratt Institute, Columbia University’s School of the Arts, the Tyler School of Art, the University of California Irvine, Claremont Graduate School, California State University Fullerton, the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of California Los Angeles, Laguna College of Art and Design, and other institutions. McPherson & Co. published his Something Else Press: An Annotated Bibliography in 1983. A cycle of poems, The Travelogues, was issued by Sun & Moon Press in 1982. Abbeville Press released New, Used & Improved, an overview of the New York art scene co-written with Michael McKenzie, in 1987.  Frank has also published many artists’ monographs, including Roller: The Paintings of Donald Roller Wilson in 1988 and Robert De Niro, Sr. in 2004.

Critics-as-Curators Series –
Critics-as-Curators is the inaugural art exhibition series at Beacon Arts.  In recognition of the gallery’s first year, esteemed art critics and writers — recognized locally, nationally and internationally — have been invited to conceive and curate shows of their choosing at the Beacon Arts Building in conjunction with discussions, lectures, catalogues, or other ways to reveal the thought process behind why exhibition works are chosen with insight into their importance to the curator. The individual expertise and personal taste developed by the curators’ world-view will be on exhibit throughout Beacon Arts’ first year. The series kicked off in October 2010 with a dynamic exhibition curated by Flavorpill Editor Shana Nys Dambrot.  In addition to Frank, future Critics-as-Curators include David Pagel, Doug Harvey, and Mat Gleason with additional curators to be announced. Critics-as-Curators strives to enrich appreciation of contemporary fine art by critically engaging in art. This series of shows provides a wonderful opportunity for artists and art audiences to learn what individual critics look for, how they think about the art they choose to focus on, and what catches their eye.

Beacon Arts –
A brand-new, risk-taking fine arts enterprise, housed within the iconic Beacon Arts Building, the venture offers innovative art programming to enrich the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. Its primary directive is to provide and maintain the integrity of an exhibition space for contemporary art by Southern California artists working in all media, including painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance art. Works by both emerging and established artists will be presented in an effort to provide a variety of ideas in different forms that both challenge and inspire. As a catalyst and advocate for new ideas, the endeavor enriches public understanding and appreciation of contemporary fine art by creating conversations through special events, lectures, symposia, and panel discussions with intellectual commentary on exhibitions. Exhibiting artists are encouraged to forge new relationships and learn from arts professionals through programming such as the gallery’s inaugural Critics-as-Curators series – consecutive shows conceived and curated by art writers and critics. This series will continue through the first year for the space, October 2010 – October 2011.

Beacon Arts Building –
The 32,400-square-foot Beacon Arts Building is an iconic four-story, solid reinforced concrete structure located in the heart of the burgeoning Inglewood Arts District. Having stored inanimate items for close to sixty years, originally as the legendary Bekins Moving and Storage Company, this dramatic, 1951 edifice is now transforming into a springboard for artistic expression.  In addition to ground floor gallery and retail spaces, the building offers a gorgeous New York warehouse-style environment for professional artists, with spaces in various sizes up to 8,000 square feet with 11’6” ceilings.  It has a high rear loading facility, large freight elevator, WiFi availability, and sprinkler system throughout. Beacon Arts Building sits prominently on La Brea Avenue, located just 11 minutes south of the 10 Freeway (I-10). On-site parking is available or found on the adjacent streets. For further information about availabilities in the Beacon Arts Building, please contact Scott Lane at 310-576-3543 or scottlaneco@yahoo.com.

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For more information, images, and interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada (née Hasty) at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.