“Consciousness creates reality. Only when there is a mind to consider the world is there a world...You look at this thing and it moves. You try to portray it, and it changes. You look out of the corner of your eye, it eludes you. You stare straight, you widen your eyes, and it makes a face at you” -Jonathan Lethem
Los Angeles, Calif. — Subject/Observer is a group exhibition in which a selected group of artists create a chain of portraits using each other as their subjects. Pairings are selected at random, each artist serving as the subject for another’s portrait. Ultimately this project seeks to investigate the relationships and exchanges that take place when artists attempt understanding through the context of portraiture. Given the various nature of relationships between each artist and subject, a diverse body of work is inevitable. Unrestricted by method or medium, it is hoped that these works can bring into consideration questions of identity, both of the artist and subject, as well as the nature of information exchanged when creating a portrait.
The Subject/Observer project was initiated and curated by Los Angeles based artist Noel Madrid.
Artists: Jordan Avila, Cecelia Caro, Rebecca Giesking, Eric Hancock, Allison Honeycutt, Noel Madrid, Bruna Massadas, Christine Rasmussen, Katie Shanks, Kate Sikorski, Joy Shannon, Stephanie Sherwood
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jordan Avila — Jordan “Jor” Avila is an artist who expresses his work in many forms, ranging from painting, ink, photography, fashion, filmmaking, music and video art. His main focus is painting and music. His utilize oil, ink and graphite on canvas with gesture drawings and thick and thin techniques as well as text and texture. His subject matter ranges from the absurd to to elegant. Jordan’s draws influence from William Wegman, Jacques Louis Davis and Wayne Thiebaud.
Cecelia Caro — Cecelia Caro is a Los Angeles based painter. Having received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Long Beach, Cecelia maintains an artist practice exploring connection and chaos through abstract painting and collage. Her collage works often take over entire interior walls and verge on installation.
Rebecca Giesking —Rebecca Giesking is a Long Beach artist who has been active in the community for over ten years. Primarily an abstract painter, she was commissioned by the Bixby Knolls Business Association to create a mural for the Allery project in 2015. In addition she created an interactive installation for the Music Tastes Good festival in 2017. Her current collage paintings explore line, pattern, color and texture using a variety of media.
Eric Hancock — Eric Hancock received an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2008. He harnesses Western and Eastern sensibilities, especially the notion of Bokeh or blurring. He has published commentary and criticism on Art through a number of online and physical platforms. Hancock lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Allison Honeycutt — Allison Honeycutt is a fine artist and art director based in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from NSCAD University with a BFA and Minor in drawing as well as a Post-Baccalaureate in studio art from MUM in her hometown of Fairfield, Iowa. Allison works in a variety of media most notably works on paper, fiber sculpture and installation.
In her art she honors the beauty of awkwardness, tactility, and humor above all.
Noel Madrid —Noel Madrid is a Los Angeles based painter and printmaker. He received his B.F.A. from California State University, Long Beach in 2010. working with various media on the borders of the abstract and representational, his recent paintings and drawings fuse portraiture with mapping and organic systems in an investigation of identity.
Bruna Massadas — Bruna Massadas is a Brazilian-American artist who received a dual B.A. & B.F.A. from California State University, Fullerton and an M.F.A. from California College of the Arts. She has recently launched a podcast called “First Lady of the Mall” that pairs with her solo exhibition "Not Like in the Movies" at the Nook Gallery in Oakland. Other recent exhibitions include a solo show called “The Face Painter” at Guerrero Gallery in San Francisco and her work has been included in exhibitions at The Dot Project in London, a BBQLA’s traveling exhibition American Fine Arts, and 0-0 L.A. in Los Angeles. She is currently working on "Novela," a narrative animation project, in Bozeman, Montana.
Christine Rasmussen —Christine Rasmussen is a professional artist with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in Art Practice and Peace & Conflict Studies. She has exhibited in California, Texas and Vietnam and her work features in private collections across the world and the Hilbert Museum of California Art.
Raised by a creative family of global nomads, Christine has lived in Pakistan, Vietnam & the U.S., and has traveled in 5 continents. Her dramatic and lyrical oil paintings emote absence and longing alongside fierce, bold possibility. Based in Los Angeles, Christine runs her own art business integrating all the things she loves - creativity, connection and collaboration.
Katie Shanks — Katie Shanks is a Los Angeles based painter turned installation artist. She received her BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach in 2010; over the years, however, she has enriched her practice taking scenic byways through millinery, fashion, and fiber art. For more visit kshanks.com
Joy Shannon —Triple Goddess Tattoos is the tattoo work by painter, printmaker, and musician Joy Shannon. Joy named her practice after the symbol she tattooed the most within her first year of tattooing: the pagan symbol for the phases of the moon and the sacred phases of the woman’s life (the maiden, mother, and crone). From intricate Celtic and Nordic knotwork to ritual tattoos, she brings deep creativity and genuine love to all of her tattoos.
Joy apprenticed with renowned tattoo and graffiti artist Mike Giant, who continues to be a creative mentor in her artistic career. Her focus in tattooing is blackwork and esoteric themes, mirroring the line contours of her printmaking work and the mythological subject matter of her watercolor illustrations. Additionally, Joy has been deeply influenced by her work with the artists like Kai Uwe Faust at the Danish tattoo shop Kunsten På Kroppen, which specializes in ritualistic tattoos in the ancient Nordic style.
Stephanie Sherwood— Stephanie Sherwood lives and works in Los Angeles. She has been a part of the Hawthorne Arts Complex since 2014. The elevation of abject forms fascinates Her—raw meat splayed out on a cutting board or stuffed into a tupperware container; chaotic and beautiful fleshy shapes bound within the rigidity of a cage; haphazard fabric, plastic and paper within a cast aside shopping cart.
Her explorations begin with strong line and progress with thick paint. Recently, the expression of these fleshy obsessions has continued using cardboard, wood and leather which manifest into sculptural forms.
Kate Sikorski — Kate Sikorski’s mixed media drawings experiment with ways of portraying that are characterized by friendship, dialogue, openness, listening, agency, personhood, and collaborative representation. Although primarily working from direct observation, Sikorski’s work is concept driven, attempting to subtly activate the viewer to consider–often times silly– solutions to unsolved ethical problems of figural representation, seeing, and being seen.
Sun-printed, water-transferred, ironed-on, and intricately cut inkjet collage elements compliment the immediacy of sensitive and precise draughtsmanship. With consent, Sikorski incorporates sitters’ self-representations online into her portraits in the form of digital screen captures of their social media posts. Sharing the physical pictorial space of the painting with the raw and varied handwritten responses of those she depicts, text often humorously challenges Sikorski’s authority and perception.
Sikorski received her BA in Global Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2006) and her MFA from California State University, Long Beach (2011). Sikorski has participated in exhibitions at the Torrance Art Museum, El Segundo Art Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, and Alexander Salazar Fine Art. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including: New American Paintings blog, the Huffington Post, OC Weekly, Fox News San Diego, Blue Magazine (Japan), and TIDE magazine (Germany). Sikorski was the recipient of a Jeanie Anderson Memorial Grant (2005), a Kick Starter grant (2011), and was a resident artist (March 2013) on the user based curatorial platform and public exhibition space Chloe Flores Facebook. Sikorski lives and works in Los Angeles.