The Fellows of Contemporary Art gallery is pleased to present the exhibition NOT-NON OBJECTIVE, which includes the work of seven artists from Southern California.
The title, a double negative, is also a double entendre; although most of the work in the exhibition appears to be “pure” abstraction, without pictorial or other references, all of the works in the show are in fact referencing the landscape and the planet itself.
So the artists in the exhibition are not making artwork that is “non-objective” (a familiar synonym for pure abstraction) in the sense of hierarchies of abstraction. There also is a tangible objective- to call attention to the landscape, and by extension, the climate crisis. As one of the artists in the show commented, “if you are referencing the landscape as an artist today, it seems unthinkable not to reference the environment and climate change”.
Having established this, it is important to note that the work of the artists in the show all exudes a powerful formal presence that can be linked to the traditions of abstract painting. One can note connections to past movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting and Process Art. The difference between the work of these artists and historical abstract movements is both the impure nature of the artworks, and the artists’ desires to reference imagery and topics from the real world.
Marie Thibeault Disappearing Act, 2021 Oil on canvas, 75” x 72”
Constance Mallinson The Little Things, 2022 Oil on canvas, 47” x 56”
About the Curator
David DiMichele is a Los Angeles based artist, writer and curator. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is a recipient of the COLA (City of Los Angeles) individual Artist Fellowship, and the Kaus Australis Artist Residency, Rotterdam. His work is in many public collections including the Hudson Bay Company Collection, New York, the Capital Group, Los Angeles, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna CA, Disney Corporation, Burbank, CA and California State University Long Beach, CA. DiMichele currently resides in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, just north of Los Angeles, where he finds inspiration on the hiking trails of Angeles National Forest.
David DiMichele The Track Abstraction (Open), 2021 Archival pigment print and oil bar on canvas, 38” x 73”
Virginia Katz from Left "Uncertainty" , 2022 Monoprint on paper, 66” x 36”
Danny Shain Plexure, 2010 Acrylic, graphite, and thumbtacks on canvas, 96” x 72”
Exhibition Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday, 12 - 5 PM 970 N Broadway Suite 208, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 808-1008 | foca@focala.org | focala.org
Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA) is a non-profit, independent, and membership-based organization that supports contemporary art in California.
Curators Lab Exhibitions support emerging and mid-career artists by awarding grants to emerging curators who develop and present exhibitions in support of a curatorial thesis. In keeping with FOCA’s historical goal to provide documentation of each exhibition, curators produce a catalog of their choice and clarify their process of conceptualizing and organizing each exhibition. Exhibition installations and events are also documented through photographs, videos, and currently Zoom recordings posted on FOCA’s website.
Media Contacts: Tressa Miller, Chair, FOCA Curators Lab tressart@me.com
Accessibility: Disabled parking is located on the second-level parking lot. A vertical lift and ramp are available from the second-level parking lot (North side) to access Suite 208.
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