Past Exhibitions
Robin Mitchell: Spellbound
May 20 - July 1, 2023
Reception: May 20, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: June 17th, 11am
Spellbound is Robin Mitchell’s eighth solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery. An exploratory path of evolving imagery continues to unfurl and expand throughout those distinct but interconnected bodies of work. Mitchell’s first exhibition at CKG entitled, Code Paintings was reviewed for Art in America in 2007 by Constance Mallinson. Likening the shapes in her gouache paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphics, mandalas and 50’s design motifs, Mallinson concluded that Mitchell’s “heightened sense of the spirit and rhythms in nature is heir to Arthur Dove’s and Charles Burchfield’s investigations of a life force beyond mere appearances.” Subsequent bodies of her work appear to be moving closer and closer to almost microscopic views of these forms. The current work suggests vibrant atomic particles in radiating patterns, visually expanding from the center to become, as Mitchell states, “an expressive physical representation of energy and emanations.” She thinks of that central image as “the exuberant self.” Her work demonstrates that gestures and brushstrokes can be abstract, representational, and referential all at the same time, evoking the tangible and the ineffable, embracing a spiritual essence.
Lavialle Campbell: Disruption
May 20 - July 1, 2023
Reception: May 20, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: June 17th, 11am
In the spring of 2021, the contemporary quilts and mixed media sculpture of Lavialle Campbell were included in a group exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery entitled, of rope and chain her bones are made. The nine LA-based women in that exhibition created work revealing evidence of the hand and the use of elemental, raw materials in repetitive acts and rhythmic processes. For her solo exhibition, Disruption, Campbell presents a new group of abstract quilts aligned with Modernist aesthetics, Japanese minimalism and architecture. She describes her process as improvisational, and a form of tactile meditation. Working with fabric, thread and a home sewing machine, Campbell seeks to create “paintings,” using materials associated with women’s work and the feminist objectives surrounding the reconsideration of those practices. The exhibition also includes examples of her sculptural work, which more directly addresses personal themes. In the rope and chain exhibition, this was manifested in the use of molded ceramic baby bottle nipples in reference to her battle with breast cancer, and black-eyed peas, blackface and braided dread locks in works associated with African-American histories. In Disruption, her sculptural work employs black figurines spewing beaded ropes of rage.
