MICHAEL H. LORD GALLERY

Michael H. Lord Gallery Announces Representation of Sculptor Betty Gold

Michael H. Lord Gallery is pleased to announce new representation of sculptor Betty Gold.

Betty Gold was born in 1935 in Austin, Texas. She attended the University of Texas with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in Art History. After completing her studies, she entered the tutelage and apprenticeship of sculptor Octavio Medillan in Dallas, Texas.

"I've been asked many times to explain my art, but I don't think that there is an explanation, as such. I can say, however, that I began with the human figure and ended up with geometry, which I love. It's not an easily understood transition, or even one that I fully comprehend. Suffice to say that I don't think it will shed more light going beyond Picasso's simple but profound reflection that "It's the leap of the imagination."

With the exception of some photographic work, everything I have done for the major part of my career has been based on a geometric concept. It never becomes tiresome and I continue to find new ways in which to express its truth and universality. Every new project is like the first: challenging, fulfilling, and exciting.”

Since 1959, Gold has traveled extensively, studying and lecturing around the world and taking other inspiration from the diverse cultures she had observed. Her works are in private and public collections in the United States and Europe and her large outdoor sculptures are in permanent installations in Spain, Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Ireland, South Korea, Mexico and the United States.

MICHAEL H. LORD GALLERY features a wide range of contemporary art across all genres including painting, photography, video, installation, public and sculpture work. The gallery is located at 1090 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262. For more information, contact Sam Heaton at 760-699-8957 or visit online at .www.michaelhlordgallery.com.

Michael H. Lord Gallery Announces the Exhibition “DISTORTIONS: Photographic Surrealism of Michael Childers” With Artist’s Reception February 9, 2012

The Michael Lord Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition “DISTORTIONS: Photographic Surrealism of Michael Childers” with an opening reception on Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 6-8 p.m.

Noted photographer Michael Childers’ Distortions series presents a surreal fascination with the human form, which he transforms into images that transcend flesh. Bodies are morphed into a physicality that is a fantastical blend of shape and figure, which is both dynamic and mysterious.

“The essence of this surrealism comes from my passion for the greats like Kertèsz and for the distorted nudes of Bill Brandt and Henry Moore,” explains Childers. “I was also influenced by the liquid realities of Dali’s paintings and Jean Cocteau’s mirror image works.”

Childers spent years photographing the dancers of the Joffrey and Béjart ballet companies as well as exploring the fluidity found in yoga poses. Cumulatively in this new series he draws upon these past experiences to explore eroticism, internal tumult expressed externally, and, more generally, the body’s capacity to be presented in a variety of expressive transmutations.

“Distance, distortion and accident make the pictures dance,” says noted art critic David Hickey about the work.

The exhibition will run through March 12, 2012.

“AB EX NOW: ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM” OPENS AT MICHAEL LORD GALLERY JANUARY 13, 2012

The Michael Lord Gallery is pleased to announce “AB EX NOW: Abstract Expressionism.” The exhibition opens with an artist’s reception on Friday, January 13, 2011 from 6 to 8 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.

The exhibition will take a look at contemporary abstraction through the work of artists Constance DeJong, David Einstein, Bart Exposito, Charles Fresquez, Grace Hartigan, John Pearson, Richard Roth and Frank Stella.

The exhibition will run through March 3, 2012.

MICHAEL H. LORD GALLERY ANNOUNCES REPRESENTATION OF PHOTOGRAPHER MICHAEL CHILDERS

Michael Childers, The Hockney Swimmer, 1978, Color Photo

Michael H. Lord Gallery is pleased to announce new representation of photographer Michael Childers.

Childers is known worldwide for his iconic portraits of legendary movie stars, artists and other iconic luminaries that first graced the cover of Interview Magazine. As founding photographer for that publication, Childers guided it to its place as a unique documentation of his life’s personal friends during his many years in Hollywood, a time he shared with his life partner, the late director John Schlesinger.

His work has been the subject of many important exhibitions including his one man retrospective Icons and Legends at the Palm Springs Art Museum which featured striking photographs of cinematic greats and masters of culture such as Natalie Wood and Andy Warhol; and his equally stellar Rockin’ Hollywood (forty years of music legends) which took place aboard the Queen Mary gallery. Most recently, Childers’ Famous Faces on Film was exhibited at the Carmel Art and Film Festival highlighting fifty legendary portraits. In March 2012, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art will present a retrospective of his work.

In the recent decade, Childers’ work has also evolved beyond the portrait into the world of abstraction, conceptualism and metamorphosis of the still life.

According to gallery director Sam Heaton, “We are looking forward to showing Childers’ work from his rarely or never seen series such as Distortions which explore the idealization of the human body through reflected surrealism and mental constructs of society towards the body as well as his more renowned work like the Hockney Swimmer photo that is included in the upcoming exhibition Backyard Oasis as part of the Palm Springs Art Museum’s contribution to the Getty’s statewide cultural initiative Pacific Standard Time.”

Robert Beauchamp Exhibition Catalog Now Available

“ROBERT BEAUCHAMP: FIGURATIVE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM | 1960-1987” OPENS AT MICHAEL LORD GALLERY OCTOBER 21, 2O11

The Michael Lord Gallery is pleased to announce its first exhibition of the season. “Robert Beauchamp: Figurative Abstract Expressionism | 1960-1987” opens on Friday, October 21, 2011.

Beauchamp was one of the first and most prominent Figurative Expressionist painters to appear in the American art world in the late 1950’s. His work was bold, inventive, and at times eccentric and wildly humorous. He was greatly admired by his peers: including artists, critics and curators. He was one of those rare individuals who went his own way and developed his own vision without compromise. His output, which was extensive, included not only oil paintings on canvas, but also oversized drawings and large oil-stick paintings on paper.

His early works depicted romantic and somewhat enigmatic fantasies. Later Beauchamp developed a more existential expression in which seemingly unrelated objects, animals and people, were combined in a dynamic tapestry. As he matured, the human condition, with all its expectations, fears, and ironic confusions, became his focus. Beyond the subject, however, there was always the very nature of paint itself, which he used as an emotional experience much as the Abstract Expressionists did. The Beauchamp trademark was his masterful control of the medium. The texture of the paintings, infused with his inexhaustible energy, became just as important as his bold compositions and his powerful colors.

Beauchamp was an active participant in the New York art scene, exhibiting extensively throughout his career. During his lifetime he had 54 one-man exhibitions and participated in numerous invitational group shows. He first showed in a group exhibition at the Tanager Gallery, on Tenth Street in New York City in 1955, then at the Hansa Gallery and the Green Gallery downtown. In the late 1960’s he was represented at the Graham Gallery, and then at Monique Knowlton in the 1980’s and 90’s. The Whitney Museum included Beauchamp in six of their Annual Invitationals, and the Guggenheim Museum included him in their “Ten Independents” exhibit.

The exhibition will run through November.

David Einstein's Career in Painting

Michael Lord Gallery recently launched a retrospective of process painter David Einstein's extensive career.

A painter of landscapes, David prefers to work in an abstract vein that gives him the freedom to render nature subjectively. Using oil and acrylic on canvas to convey impressions largely based upon memory of the complex formal interrelationships of juxtaposed mountains, water and clouds, David works in a reductive manner. Thinking of land and sky forms as strata of color, David reduces light to its color constituents and creates art that exists as autonomous reality offering a restored order, rather than chaos. David's work is a constant exploration of the abstract laws of color, apart from and a part of nature.

Along with his paintings, David explores ink and brush mark making on handmade paper and ceramic surfaces. The marks are intuitive and spontaneous, beginning with the first light. It is this light that represents David's marks and the process involved in making them. David goes beyond the traditional boundaries in this series of drawings where he explores the mystical and spiritual experience that evokes his continued commitment to the process.

We spoke with him recently about each of his major series painted over the course of thirty years. Below is a sample of a painting from each, followed by the artist's explanation of his inspirations and directions at the time that informed the work.

Maine Landscape, 1978 - Watercolor on arches
30 x 22 inches Framed, 34" x 26"

Earth and Sky, 1975 - Watercolor on arches
30 x 22 inches Framed, 33.5" x 25

Maine Landscape Series / Earth and Sky Series

Having worked in Maine in the 1970's, Einstein was influenced and inspired by landscapes/seascapes in northern coastal region of Maine. The images dealt with the infinity, colors and forms in nature. Use of watercolor further conveyed the fluidity of the relationship between earth, water and sky.

Light Echo, 1975 - Acrylic on canvas
60 x 48 inches Framed, 60" x 48"

Light Echo Series

Einstein studied with Kenneth Noland and also was also influenced by color field painters Morris Lewis, Helen Frankenthaler and others. In this Light Echo series he deals with piercing the veil of light with the mystical issues being a driving force in denying the two-dimensional picture plane to creating three-dimensional space through the use of color. In doing so, he uses acrylic on unprimed canvas' working on the floor and wall. Extensions of his hand went beyond brushes, through the use of squeegees, rollers, sticks and sponges.

Color Echo, 1998 - Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
16 x 24 inches Framed, 17" x 25.5"

Color Echo Series

Einstein’s Color Echo series deals with Far Eastern philosophy, ideology and culture. Einstein revisited these issues after having lived in the Orient in the 1960's. Through these influences, he continued to explore his passion for nature and for mark making.

Rincon Point, 2000 - Acrylic on canvas
17 x 24 inches Framed, 18 x 26"

Rincon Point Series

Based on seascapes at Rincon Point outside of Santa Barbara in 1990's, this series deals with Einstein’s exploration of the mystical and spiritual aspects of landscapes using intuitive marks on a designated earth/sky plane. It delves into the abstract laws of color apart from and a part of nature. Acrylic paint is rolled on raw canvas followed by the use of extensions other than the brush such as palette knifes and applying paint directly from the tube to the canvas. Many of these marks were further manipulated.

Infinities, 2000 - Acrylic on canvas

54 x 28.5 inches, Unframed, 54" x 28.5"

Infinities Series

In the Infinities series, Einstein creates an illusion of three-dimensional space using formal considerations of color. Flat grounds of acrylic paint were initially applied followed by the marks, which denied the flat surface thus creating this spatial relationship. Light, space and color was again a driving force allowing the viewer the illusion of entering a 3-D space. Scale of works were important in allowing the viewer a "door" to this space.

Figure Ground, 2005 - Oil stick mixed media on paper
35 x 22.5 inches Framed, 39" x 27"

Figure Ground Series

Einstein’s Figure Ground series traces back to his late 1960's studies with sumi ink executed at a Zen monastery in Kyoto, Japan. The marks in the Figure Ground series are the evolution of his past Aleph bodies of work and are executed with ink and oil stick to exemplify the tension of fluidity through ink versus fluidity in a harder material.

Wabi-Sabi / Rings, 2010 - Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
69 x 95 inches Framed, 69" x 95"

Wabi - Sabi / Rings

A continuation of calligraphy’s influence on Einstein’s work from the 1960's to present, the Wabi-Sabi series represents the art of imperfection. The marks are done in sumi and other inks on various handmade papers in a direct, spontaneous and intuitive manner.

Heart Rings, 2010 - Oil stick mixed media on paper

28 x 22 inches, Framed, 32" x 25.5"

Heart Rings

The Heart Rings Series is the culmination of Einstein’s connection to nature, landscape and wabi-sabi (the art of imperfection). Subliminally, the gestures took the shapes of hearts, hence the heart rings. Formally the pieces deal with figure/ground relationships as well as surface issues.

All work is currently available upon request at the gallery.