Nazish Chunara Reviews Rebecca Farr: Out of Nothing on Venison Magazine 10.26.16
A solo exhibition by Rebecca Farr
Exhibition Dates | October 22nd – December 3rd, 2016
Opening Reception | Saturday, October 22nd, 6pm – 8pm
Klowden Mann
6023 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 11am – 5pm
Preview by Nazish Chunara
Walking into Klowden Mann, an intimate sized gallery, I was immediately drawn to Farr’s oil paintings to the left. I suffer from tunnel vision when it comes to paintings. The feeling was very motion filled. There’s so much movement the paintings that reveal human silhouettes, which are immersed in their environment. It’s the collage-like technique she infuses into the positions of these silhouettes that bring them to life. The way they simultaneously interact and pull away from each other suggest an activity. They are not looking at at one another most of the time though. The bird’s eye view perspective she utilizes suggests that I’m getting a private viewing of these personalities.
These paintings are placed next to each other, along with one on the opposite wall. They represent what Farr describes as “form,” the middle stage of this layout. I eventually made my way to “pre-form”’ and “letting go of form.”
Pre-form is represented by the wall sized sculpture resting against the wall immediate to the entrance of the gallery. Without even knowing the layout’s intentionality, I can see the beginnings of this story because of this specific piece. It’s large and whole but disheveled in appearance. Monday morning anyone? The intrigue of this piece leads you to the remaining sculptures installed with black backgrounds. They are made of plaster, cotton and burlap. Their individuality suggests the importance of pieces or steps that make up an occurance.
I come back around to the paintings because I’m slightly obsessed with how alive they are. Just as Deb Klowden Mann said, I want to be in them. Next, I find my way to “letting go of form,” hidden behind the wall of smaller sculptures. I say hidden because it really isn’t obvious to the eye. I had to feel a little nosey and go explore, or truly, I wouldn’t have seen it. Here you’ll find a subdued, warmer-paletted landscape painting and remnants of a sculpture made of ash, plaster and castor cloth on the ground. At this point you may or may not have the “a-ha” moment. It just makes sense. You have to go looking for it. It being letting go.
Farr’s Out of Nothing may have transitioned from history’s telling’s to personal story telling, but I think the moment you set foot into that show, you’ll sense the familiarity and find that your story is hidden in there too.
Rebecca Farr (b. 1973, Glendale, CA) had her most recent solo exhibition at Klowden Mann in 2014, which was accompanied by a special catalogue and artist book featuring an essay by Ed Schad, and was reviewed on New American Paintings. In 2015, Farr was awarded a residency at Kaus Australis in Rotterdam, and was featured in a group exhibition at Kaus in the Fall of 2015. Farr has exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Istanbul, Rotterdam, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Her work is held in private collections both nationally and internationally, and she recently completed two years as faculty artist in the education department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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