Opening Reception - Friday, April 21 - 7-10 PM
Color Anthropology &
Explorer: Plein Air Paintings by Bill Robinson
Artist Talk - Friday, April 21 - 7-8 PM
Megan Nicole Dong & Stu Livingston
Light Grey Art Lab will be launching two new exhibitions in April; the group exhibition Color Anthropology and a solo exhibition entitled Explorer: Plein Air Paintings by Bill Robinson. The opening reception for both is Friday, April 21st from 7 to 10 PM and will feature an artist talk by visiting Nickelodeon Studios animation directors and storyboard artists Stu Livingston and Megan Nicole Dong.
Color Anthropology
Color is hardwired into the human experience. From the very beginning, color informed our daily lives. “Our most basic associations started with our instinctive need to survive,” writes Darius A Monsef IV in his book Color Inspirations. “We searched for blue water to quench our thirst, created red fire for warmth and sought green plants from food.” Over time our relationship with color evolved to convey emotion, class, and spirituality. Each hue has a deep history of meaning and connotations, and these stories are the subject of Light Grey Art Lab’s newest exhibition, Color Anthropology.
Sixty participating artists in Color Anthropology were tasked with creating work based on the cultural impact of a specific hue of their choosing. These artists were free to research and explore the cultural significance of this color across thousands of years. Work revolves around the symbolism, trade history, and spiritual importance of colors such as Lapis Lazuli, Blaze Orange, and Celadon, as well more recent colors, such as Barbie® Pink’s place in pop culture and modern society.
“Yellow has been the symbol of pro-democracy protests in both Hong Kong and Malaysia in the past ten years,” says Malaysian artist Charis Locke. “It's also a significant colour in different Asian cultures, standing for joy and wisdom, and is often the colour of royalty. I made a series of yellow flower posters in solidarity with recent events, and wish to continue exploring its role in protests and civil society.”
Other artists focused on color symbolism in fiction, such as Robin Hood’s iconic Lincoln Green garb, or the process and science behind a color, such as Oaxacan Purple, which is produced from crushed sea snail shells, and turn from yellow to their final purple hue due to chemical reactions when exposed to sunlight. Each work will be accompanied by a written statement by the artist, explaining the significance of that color, and why it’s important to acknowledge how it’s shaped our vision of the world.
Explorer: Plein Air Paintings by Bill Robinson
Bill Robinson has an accomplished career of illustrating children's books and creating concept art for companies like Sony Pictures Animation, ReelFX, Nickelodeon, HBO, and Disney Interactive. He divulges that his true love is leaving the studio behind and painting outdoors–plein air painting.
“As a concept artist for the animation industry by day, I tend to be stuck inside at a computer,” says Robison. “When I started to paint outdoors I was faced with the usual challenges of weather and lighting and what type of gear to use - but all of this was easily outweighed by the fresh air, sunlight, and sounds of nature around me.”
An exhibition about finding daily glimpses of adventure beauty, Explorer is an entirely new body of work featuring twenty-five original plein air paintings from the past year. The paintings are a journal of Robinson’s home town and travels featuring natural settings of rocky coastlines, dense woods, and babbling brooks, as well as urban paintings of cozy architecture and Los Angeles street scenes.
“Los Angeles is known more for its freeways than its natural beauty, so I was surprised at how much incredible scenery there is to paint all around me,” says Robinson. “It may be something as grand as a mountainside, or as simple as a tree at the end of my street. I find that both are worth looking at closer.”
The opening reception for Color Anthropology and Explorer: Plein Air Paintings by Bill Robison is Friday, April 21st from 7-10 PM. Both will remain on display through Saturday, May 20th. The opening reception is free and open to the public, and features an artist talk by Nickelodeon Studios animation directors and storyboard artists Stu Livingston and Megan Nicole Dong. The artist talk will run from 7-8 PM.