David Lloyd at Quotidian and Klowden Mann

Iva Gueorguieva, First Light, 2020. Acrylic and collage on muslin (janus). 120 by 124 inches.

IN COLOR

Joe Davidson
Mae Engron
Iva Gueorguieva
David Lloyd
Manuel Lopez
Rosalyn Myles

In the time of covid, Quotidian and Klowden Mann present IN COLOR, an exhibition that invites viewers to embrace the art of slow looking through an immersive experience in color rich paintings, collage and sculptures. The exhibition will be on view at transformative arts HQ, located in the former Quotidian space at 410 S. Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, from December 21st, 2020 through February 28th, 2021.

Always in the act of weaving together community through expressive and necessary visual language, IN COLOR offers a deeply satisfying moment connecting us to Joe Davidson, Mae Engron, Iva Gueorguieva, David Lloyd, Manuel Lopez and Rosalyn Myles. These artists--who we have shown and continue to work with--have diverse approaches to making, yet each arrives in a generous place of texture, form, and most importantly for the dialog between works, intense color palettes.

Mae Engron (1942-2007) inspired this gathering of some of our favorite artists. Her work lives at 410 S Spring Street since Quotidian began working with her estate in 2016. Engron's paintings suggest tapestries, African American quilting traditions and the unburdening of emotion through color and gesture. Francine Kelly, Quotidian founder and early supporter of Engron recalled that color was the most important aspect of her work. With a desire to engage her "love language" in a moment when it seems we need it most, we tapped into artists' works that investigate, employ and ultimately embrace color. 

David Lloyd sees color as a challenge and a gift, both provided by his native Los Angeles. We love Lloyd's work because he adamantly calls himself a painter, evidencing a never-ending curiosity for materials that support that practice. These carved wood paintings are rich color fields made more provocative by their form. 

Form, structures and systems are at the heart of Rosalyn Myles' latest works. Literally cut from the headlines, these masterful collages are equal parts rage and art work, saturated in the hues of the moment. Myles is a prolific maker and storyteller, and with these texts pinned to the wall, she reveals her origins in textile, connecting her in multiple ways to back to our muse. 

Joe Davidson pushes the boundaries of how seductively color influences form in his latest body of plaster works. These self-referential sculptures are moniz's favorite articulation of Davidson's practice. Their minimalism invites interpretation, fantasy and some wonder. While he doesn't see himself as a narrative artist, these abstract sculptures seem infused with emotion--the intangible result of chemistry and feeling that drives our passion to become literate in its language(s).

For Manuel Lopez, visual language is at its most powerful and clear when it is reflecting the vitality of space and place. Lopez's detailed renderings of his East LA neighborhood are well known, and we are so happy to include his intimate watercolor and oil paintings in IN COLOR. He deftly immerses the landscape in meaning, perspective and the intersections of hue and form that become the doorway to indigenous and canonical histories of the pictorial.

Finally, we are proud to exhibit the work of Iva Gueorguieva, an artist we both admire, but have never had the opportunity to show until now. Her work represents the convergence of our galleries' missions, specifically our dedication to talking with and encouraging local artists. Gueorguieva's abstractions are pregnant with color and emotion, and through the complexity of her layered palette speak with urgency to the dislocation of our collective good. While she unpacks this dystopian moment, she offers--like all IN COLOR artists--something of herself as explanation and balm. For us, and we hope for you, to be awash in these works provides the necessary visual nourishment we need to persist. 

IN COLOR opens digitally December 18, 2020 and in person by appointment December 21. 

Please reach out to jill@transformativenow.org or deb@transformativenow.org in order to make an in-person appointment,  request a pdf of works in the exhibition, or with any press requests. 

IN COLOR on GalleryPlatform.LA 
IN COLOR on Quotidian
IN COLOR on Klowden Mann

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transformative arts' vision is to support celebratory, protective and creative visual language that builds from one community to the next, forming intersecting relationships between creative intentions, content and cultures. We provide free arts programming built in collaboration with our artists and their communities, placing artists at the heart of their community to serve as a catalyst and a mirror. This act of connection between artists and their communities may seem small, but in truth it has the capacity to fundamentally shift the way we imagine and enact our future by giving communities more accessible narrative power--the ability to build road maps for a future that we all need now more than ever. 

Please reach out if you would like to know more about who we are and what we do. And please consider supporting our work--your donations mean the world to us, and to the artists and communities we work with, and allow us to follow the leadership of a diverse group of women from multiple generations who believe art has an essential purpose. We are committed to enacting our core values on every level of the organization, and are grateful for the opportunity to do so. Please click here to donate, and to learn more. 

Wishing you all health and safety now, and in the months ahead!  

David Lloyd, Untitled, 2017. Acrylic and encaustic on wood. 48 by 36 inches.