ViCA's Grand Opening at Bendix Building February 8
On Saturday, February 8, the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art held its Grand Opening celebration in their new space at the Bendix Building in downtown LA with "50 Years of Oil & Water - Gloriane Harris - 1969-2020".
In the late 60's and early 1970's, because of the relative youth of the art scene in LA, artists were leaving for New York en masse — many felt it was their only choice in order to survive. Others, such as Ed & Nancy Keinholz, Lita Albuquerque, George Herms and Gloriane Harris, elected to live and work in LA, and to make the art that they wanted to make without pressure from the NY art market. Add to that an often chauvinist critical bias in favor of artists — such as the Boys Club that hung out at the Ferus Gallery and the departure of of Artforum from offices above the Ferus to NYC — and you have the picture of the tremendous challenge facing artists who were not white, male, and heterosexual. One of the dealers who focused on LA artists and dealt with this exodus to New York first hand was Ellie Blankfort, who showed artists such as Harris and Albuquerque very early in their careers.
"Her painting was my very first sale. It was a beautiful work. I am looking forward very much to her retrospective." Ellie Blankfort, January 2020
ViCA has chosen to focus its exhibition program for 2020 on overlooked artists, beginning with Gloriane Harris.
"We're proud to present the first retrospective exhibition of Gloriane Harris and her first solo show in 35 years.
Harris has lived and worked on the westside of LA — quite purposely under the radar — for decades. Meanwhile, she was often ahead of her time, such as with her early hard edge work and shaped canvases, which no one has ever seen since she painted them." Juri Koll, Director/ViCA
"Among other things, Gloriane Harris's half-century output demonstrates that color-saturated painting in southern California owes little to its East Coast equivalent. Rather, it results from a keen attention to nature and, especially, to light. Harris is nothing if not a Light-and-Space artist; she just happens to rely on paint, brushes, and canvas." Peter Frank
VIP/Press Preview: February 8 5-7pm
Opening Reception: February 8 7-10pm
After Party: ArtBarLA on the Westside 11:30pm - 2am
Artist Talk: March 7 3-4:30pm
The exhibition continues through April 19, although at this time it can only be seen virtually.
Gloriane Harris was born in 1947 in Santa Monica, California. She says that "the light of the ocean and the beach in Southern California is like nothing anywhere else", and is the greatest influence on her painting. Gloriane Harris earned her MFA from Otis Art Institute, mentored by, among other notables, Charles White, who is a major influence to countless Los Angeles artists. She worked with Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman on the first artists' worldwide satellite broadcast at Documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany in 1977.
Harris has exhibited at museums and galleries across the U.S. and Europe, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Newport Art Museum, the Museum of Art and History, the Los Angeles Design Center, Ellie Blankfort, Mt. San Antonio College, Foundations Gallery in NYC, the Palais de Beaux Arts in Belgium, and the Fahle Gallery in Estonia. She has been curated into shows by Juri Koll, Peter Frank, John Lees and others, appeared in art publications such as Art in America, and is part of important collections.
In the late 80's, Harris withdrew from the art scene and stopped attending openings while continuing to paint daily. From the beginning of her career, Harris has taught countless artists at Otis Art Institute, El Camino College, Cerritos College, among several other institutions, exhibiting there yearly, and has now re-emerged with ViCA.
Photographs and an archival documentary about Harris will also be presented, rarely seen since the early 1980's.
For inquiries/VIP/Press: juri@veniceica.org or 310-957-7037. Ample street parking or enter parking garage in the building on 12th St. just east of Maple.
ViCA is located in the Bendix Building at 1206 S. Maple Ave. #722, Los Angeles, CA 90015.
ArtBarLA is located at 12071 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066.
Wallspace shares space within the gallery.
