Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Mark Steven Greenfield exhibit in Pasadena March 3

Offramp Gallery is pleased to present Animalicious, the third solo exhibition of the work of Los Angeles born artist Mark Steven Greenfield from March 3 - April 14, 2013. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, March 3 from 2-5pm. Featuring approximately 14 works completed over the past two years, the exhibition further explores issues surrounding the development of African American stereotype through works on wood, Duralar and cotton embroidery, several of which will be on display for the first time. The exhibition will be accompanied by a limited edition monograph with an essay written by Dr. Rachael Z. DeLue, associate professor of American Art at Princeton University. In the words of DeLue:

“ . . . Greenfield posits animation in the first half of the twentieth century as something like a blackface factory, its workers mass producing minstrel-like characters that proliferated in American entertainment just as Greenfield’s abstract forms proliferate and spread across his images.”

Established as a painter, draftsman and printmaker, Greenfield systematically imbues his work with a meditative scrawl in a form of mental and psychological mapping. The resulting visual vocabulary creates an interplay between positive and negative space forcing the viewer to find unsettling relief by focusing on the figure often appropriated from decidedly racist cartoons of the 1930s, 40s and beyond. Consistent with his work dealing with stereotypes in the past, Animalicious represents the next chapter in his efforts to stimulate dialog on issues of “otherness” and the illusion of post-racialism.

Greenfield’s work has been featured in recent exhibitions including: Latitude 34-40 (2010) Art 1307, Villa di Donato, Naples, Italy; Blackatcha..Once Again (2010), Isi Arti Associate, Naples, Italy; Places of Validation, Art & Progression (2010) part of Pacific Standard Time; and Go Tell It On the Mountain (2012), both at the California African American Museum; International Art Exchange Exhibition, Korea-USA (2012) Seoul, South Korea; andLetters From LA (2012) Jack Rutberg Fine Arts. Greenfield is the recipient of the Los Angeles Artist Fellowship Laboratory Grant, 2011, the COLA Individual Artist Fellowship, 2011, and the California Community Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, 2012.



Offramp Gallery • 1702 Lincoln Avenue • Pasadena, CA 91103 • 626-298-6931

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