Christine Frerichs in Notes on Looking 12.16.10
Weekend of Dec 18, 19 – Part 1
Hello my friends, this is a great weekend to go out looking. And a chance to see a few important painting exhibitions.
Christine Frerichs, On Recognition at Kaycee Olsen is closing Saturday. Frerichs is a recent UC Riverside grad and for her first post-grad solo show in town she’s presenting abstract paintings and works on paper thinly veiled as portraits. For some of the paintings she uses a method of layering parallel loose lines of color and in others thick dabs of color. A brief techincal description, as I understand it: thickly painted radiating lines are painted first – in the painting I recall best this originating surface was painted in shiny dumpster green – then Frerichs added a series of purple hatch marks, the purple were mixed to resonate with a memory of Frerichs’ mother and only enough paint for one day. She repeated these actions, attempting each day to once again match the purple tone to her memory and to the previous day’s color until the canvas was covered. Loose, wavy lines painted in Frerich’s skin tone were then painted over all.
The effect Frerichs achieves might feel like op art except for the apparent inexactitude of (or Impressionist-ish) paint application and the very personal nature of the painting. A small realistic painting, titled Self Portrait Laughing faces into the space behind you as you enter the gallery and will likely be the last painting you notice in your first go round. I had to be told by another painter friend the inspiration for this painting was fin de siecle Austrian painter Richard Gerstl – a tragic hero, youthful suicide and generally fascinating character.
Tiny but totally worth checking out are a series of rubbings on the right wall of the gallery as you enter. Also, in the back room a white painting on canvas that’s been unstretched and remounted on a larger canvas. This is beautiful! It looks like a trifold letter. The lines are soooo sweet and direct. Nice one, Christine. Kaycee Olsen, 2685 S. La Cienega, 90034
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