Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Sharon Louden: Simple Strokes, an exhibition of recent painting, sculpture and animation by the celebrated New York artist. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 6, from 6:00-8:00 pm. The exhibition continues through June 22.
 
For nearly twenty years, the common denominator and backbone of Sharon Louden’s visual vocabulary has been the line. Often using no more than a simple stroke of fingertip width, the line has diligently been explored by the artist through paintings, drawings, animations, sculpture and installations. These linear works sometimes evolve into simple rectangles – taking form with four simple strokes – never deviating far from their linear origins. Modest in scale and execution, her paintings and drawings prompted Benjamin Genocchio of the New York Times to describe them as “feeling airborne, as though Louden blew them out of her hand.”
 
The inherent energy and movement of Louden’s work has found a logical and amiable partnership with video, giving her the chance to continue exploring formal concerns; toying and teasing the narrative potential of her drawings and paintings. Her animations – sometimes two years in the making - continue to be screened and featured in many film festivals and museums all over the world. In 2011, Carrier, premiered at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in a historical program of abstract animation since 1927. Louden will premier yet another, new animation at the National Gallery of Art in September of this year entitled, “Community,” which will travel to various museum venues. Three animations, Carrier, The Bridge, and Hedge, will be on view in the Dallas exhibition.
 
In 2011 Louden was commissioned by the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis to create a large-site specific installation inspired by the Frank Gehry designed addition. The work entitled Merge was made out of more than 350,000 aluminum strips in varying sizes. Two wall sculptures both Merge Compositions will be included in the Dallas exhibition with this inspiration in mind.
 
Sharon Louden attended the Atlanta College of Art (1982-85), The School of the Art Institute (B.F.A. 1988), and Yale University School of Art (M.F.A. 1991). Her work has been written about in numerous articles since 1985 in publications such as Art in America, Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Kansas City Star, NYArts Magazine, Boston Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Sculpture Magazine, ARTnews, and The New York Times.
 
Louden’s work is in the permanent collections of the Arkansas Arts Center, AT&T, Birmingham Museum of Art, British Petroleum Amoco Corporation, Delaware Art Museum, Hallmark Cards Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Neuberger Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Panasonic USA, Pfizer, Inc., World Headquarters, Progressive Corporation, University of Alaska Museum of the North, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Weisman Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Yahoo! Corporate Headquarters, Yale University Art Gallery and the Werner H. Kramarsky Collection.
 
Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1411 Dragon Street in Dallas. Gallery hours are 11 to 5, Tuesday through Saturday. The gallery is a founding member of CADD - Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas. For information call 214-369-0169, email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com, or visit the gallery website at www.hollyjohnsongallery.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Talley Dunn Gallery
 
PLEASED TO MEET ME
Kristen Cochran, Rachel Cox, Laurie Frick, Jessica Halonen, Kelly O’Connor, and Michelle Rawlings
 
June 8 – July 27, 2013
 
Opening reception: Saturday, June 8, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
 
Artists’ talk: Saturday, June 8, 5:30PM
 
May 24, 2013 – Talley Dunn Gallery is proud to present a group exhibition called PLEASED TO MEET ME of recent work by six artists,
including Kristen Cochran, Rachel Cox, Laurie Frick, Jessica Halonen, Kelly O’Connor, and Michelle Rawlings. PLEASED TO MEET ME
will open with an evening reception for the artists on Saturday, June 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, and the exhibition will be on view
through July 27th. The artists will give a brief talk about their work before the opening reception at 5:30 PM on Saturday, June 8th.
 
In PLEASED TO MEET ME, all of the artists presented explore underlying systems of knowing and understanding the world in which
we live and the ways that we think about our most important relationships, both to others and ourselves. Austin-based artist
Laurie Frick’s large Moodjam panels of multi-colored tiles represent data-filled self-portraits culled from her ongoing experiments
in self-tracking, a popular practice of monitoring sleep cycles, steps taken, moods, and/or foods eaten to better understand patterns
of behavior and their effects on the body. Frick’s laser-cut drawings reveal intricate patterns of data collected and laid out within
careful grids to map personal systems of meaning, sometimes containing areas of breakdown in which the patterns have collapsed,
leaving the whole system to be rebooted to begin again.
 
Like Frick, Dallas artist Kristen Cochran also creates maps for better understanding, but in Cochran’s case, she is interested in mapping
both the conceptual gap between the artist and the viewer and actual physical spaces within her experience. Using simple materials
found within her studio (once a sign painting company), Cochran works with the debris as a way to relate to and know the space on its
own terms and to connect the viewer to it. Cochran has developed a language of abstract forms and physical objects as a type of
vocabulary to communicate with the viewer, allowing for some slippage and miscommunication along the way. Cochran’s Limp Grid
presents a simple, linear diagram of her studio space with nylon cord, calling to mind the snap line of a builder, but with a sagging,
imperfect quality that suggests the artist’s sense of humor and playful demeanor. Cochran’s work is presented in the exhibition
by courtesy of Wanda Dye and RE Gallery + Studio.
 
Austin-based artist Jessica Halonen continues the exploration with her Rx Garden sculptures and Target paintings, works which
present the complex issue of the pharmaceutical industry’s genetic modification of plants and animals to produce medicines,
more productive crops, or surgical materials. Using a repetition of basic shapes, Halonen’s minimalist Target paintings represent
genetic code that has been played with and altered. Trompe l’oeil identification tags and chromosomes appear to detach from the
surface and foil the rhythm and perfection of the paintings. Referencing the practice of genetic tagging and splicing new material
into DNA strands, sculptures such as Rx Garden: Sticky Ends presents the manipulation of nature and the basic codes that underlie
the design of life itself.
 
Within Rachel Cox’s photographs, the exploration turns from the clinical to the personal, as her current series Shiny Ghosts offers
images of her grandmother taken after she had been diagnosed with a terminal brain disease. As Cox states “The photographs
were initially taken as attempts to frantically feel close to my grandmother as her own consciousness faded. I began to photograph
what I thought I knew about her, the attributes that ostensibly defined her, but would often end up, instead, with pictures that
represented my own fears and doubts about our relationship.” In images such as Wiglet 11 and Winner, Cox documents the treasured
objects and belongings that her grandmother has collected over time with an honest and sometimes surreal portrayal.
 
Michelle Rawlings also uses imagery to delve into underlying meaning and open up ways to relate to the viewer. Her painting,
Anne Frank’s Poster, reproduces the cheerful advertising poster that was displayed in the Frank family’s hiding place during
their struggle to escape the Nazis in the 1940s. The text, “Nu zelf Jam maken met Opekta (Make Jam with Opekta)”
references the company for which Anne Frank’s father worked in Amsterdam, capturing a moment in the life of a young girl
trying to make sense of her experience. Like Rawlings’ earlier paintings based on yearbook photos, Anne Frank’s Poster also
shows the artist’s attempt to relate on a deeper level, both to the viewer and perhaps to Anne Frank herself. During an
interview last year about her show at Oliver Francis Gallery, the artist explained “I try to make myself as vulnerable as possible
in order to relate to the viewer. I was actually really embarrassed about the awkward stage of growing up.”
Rawlings’ paintings are included in the exhibition courtesy of Oliver Francis Gallery.
 
Like Rawlings, San Antonio-based artist Kelly O’Connor also appropriates imagery, but in O’Connor’s case, she utilizes idyllic
imagery of American leisure during the 1950s and 1960s as a way to look at our fascination with the nostalgia of the past.
Interested in showing the divide between the façade of fun and one’s actual experience, O’Connor considers popular American
pastimes, such as visiting theme parks and swimming pools, to suggest how fantasy and popular culture color our perceptions.
Each image is layered with collaged, honeycomb patterns in a colorful, mid-century palette. In Twirl, O’Connor offers an image
of children enjoying the Mad Tea Party, the whirling teacup ride at Disney World inspired by the “unbirthday” party in Alice in
Wonderland. Yet, this same ride has also earned infamy for the number of children who get motion sickness as a result of the
crazy spinning experience.
 
PLEASED TO MEET ME will run concurrently with Helen Altman: clear view in the project gallery. Talley Dunn Gallery is open
to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm and by appointment. Please contact Beth Taylor at the gallery
(214/521-9898) or via e-mail at beth@talleydunn.com for additional information, including the artists’ biographies and visuals of the
exhibition.