CHARLIE BILLINGHAM – TENDER 2 THE SUNSHINE ROOM
2014-06-02This exhibition realizes an expanded presentation of his recent series of small-scale paintings and sculptural pieces, both inspired by silhouettes of boats, as well as several new, large canvases, which depict glass houses. The boat paintings hang on top of grid-patterned backdrops, which Billingham executes directly onto the gallery’s walls. These wall paintings create a visual network that serves to arrange his intimate pieces within a greater context – a relative place for them to exist.
Technically, as a painter, Billingham’s practice focuses on pigment, texture, and surface; he uses acrylic, oil, or both, applying the paint to polyester, linen, tapestry, canvas, or wood panel, depending on his desired outcome. Beyond his broad understanding of the medium, his gestures and compositions demonstrate how painting possesses the ability to be completely subjective. Accordingly, Billingham looks to personal and shared experiences as a source for his topics and imagery. His series of approximately 30 small-scale paintings are abstracted seascapes, depicting two boats floating at sea, inspired by summer holidays by the ocean. The boats’ proximity to each other, as well as the negative space surrounding them, opens a psychological dialogue – symmetry can read as balance, but it can also create tension.
Exhibition runs through to June 28th, 2014
OHWOW
937 N. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles
CA 90069
