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- 10 - 19
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to present Laura Krifka: Carousel, the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Carousel brings together a new series of provocative figurative paintings that question the social constructs of desire. The exhibition runs from September 14 through October 26, 2024, with an artist’s reception to be held on September 21st from 4 to 7 pm. Gallery programs in conjunction with the exhibition will be announced.
The revolutions of carousels, with their interplay of monotony and shifts in perspectives, serve as a compelling approach for Krifka to explore cycles and breakdowns of feminine identity. She considers the weight of society’s gaze and describes “an experience that is constantly fragmenting and reforming, and then falling apart again." From its projections of beauty and embodiment of pleasure, to its anxieties of immobility against the momentum of aging, Krifka's “carousel” plays with the social constructs of feminine desire framed by a world that seeks to define and control its edges.
The paintings in Carousel continue Krifka's examination of popular culture's obsession with gender and desire amid heated political agendas, and present a deeper investigation into how these portrayals affect our perception and treatment of others and ourselves. Krifka’s subjects exist in candid moments, framed by psychologically charged vignettes of domestic interiors, provoking conversations of power and agency. The works revel in ambiguity with figures cropped by the edges of the canvases, shadows, or architectural details, deliberately fracturing spaces and bodies. Patterns and forms repeat across multiple canvases, with each painting offering inconspicuous motifs that do not immediately reveal themselves.
Throughout, Krifka’s inquiries echo and call us to consider, “Who has the power to decide the fate of our bodies? How does our framing create our identity and, ultimately, who holds the lens?”
Laura Krifka (b.1985, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in San Luis Obispo, CA where she serves in the studio art faculty at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo. Krifka received her MFA from UC Santa Barbara in 2010 and her BFA from California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo in 2008, following earlier studies at Newbold College in England and Avondale College in Australia. Krifka’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Xioa Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China.
Artist:
Laura Krifka was born 1985 in Los Angeles, CA. She lives and works in San Luis Obispo, CA. Krifka received her MFA from UC Santa Barbara in 2010 and her BFA from California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo in 2008, following earlier studies at Newbold College in England and Avondale College in Australia.
Through intimate and carefully constructed figurative paintings artist Laura Krifka dissects the mechanisms of power, identity, and observation found in visual culture. With non-descript references to the history of painting, Krifka incorporates the contemporary frameworks of film and photography into her understanding of portraiture and psychology. By collapsing several views of the same pose, subject, space, and time into each painting Krifka creates scenes that appear deceptively simple, but are rife with distortions, puzzles, and physical impossibilities that make visual factuality tenuous and challenge a viewer’s perceptual abilities. Krifka directs each complex narrative as paintings unravel and reform slowly over months and even years. Protagonists inhabit claustrophobic, domestic spaces, sometimes gazing assertively out of their canvases, other times disappearing into the wallpaper, but always vulnerable. Krifka’s figures occupy various states of undress, preparation, or play, expressing an ease with intimacy and an acknowledgement that the act of looking is a central component of desire. The pleasure of observation is echoed in Krifka’s own words: “…our pleasures and perversions have been molded by the fictions that permeate our ubiquitous visual culture. That our most secret desires are partially formed by our codified, collective experiences is a source of endless fascination for me.”
Krifka has exhibited her work at venues throughout Southern California including Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, the Torrance Museum of Art, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, LA Louver, CB1 Gallery, and Beacon Arts in Inglewood, as well as at Zroboli Gallery in Chicago, BravinLee Programs in New York, and Vast Space Projects in Las Vegas. Krifka’s work has been featured in various publications including Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, Santa Barbara News-Press, New American Paintings, and Artillery Magazine and her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Xioa Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China.
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