Los Angeles.- The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present “New Work by Tara McPherson, Deedee Cheriel, Lindsey Way & Aiko” on view at the gallery from February 4th through March 3rd. While all the artists are working in their unique styles and mediums there is a parallel lyrical motif. Tara Mcpherson is an artist based out of New York City. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Melvins. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive. Her new work displays a focus on sensual female portraiture, aiming at capturing an essence of a woman, and spanning through seasonal changes. These portraits capture an idealized moment in time with subtle aspects of a persona conveyed in a single expression.
Deedee Cheriel’s work demonstrates a powerful tension between the design elements of stripes, patterns, and color fields, with lyrical illustration. – Shepard Fairey. Growing up skateboarding and playing in bands in the Pacific Northwest, Deedee Cheriel’s iconic work is both graphic and painterly and borrows from her Indian heritage. Her current body of work references Indian ritual art: attempting to invoke deities, exorcise negative forces, celebrate rites of passage, and mark turning points in death and renewal. Drawing upon nature and her trademark hybrid animal-people as subjects, Deedee creates dark and meditative narratives. Lindsey Way was born in Dunoon, Scotland. She attended Pratt Institute, where she studied fine art and illustration. She then worked as a window display artist throughout New York City, assisted the prolific painter Ron English and toured the globe playing bass for the band Mindless Self Indulgence.
Her work has been in CBGB’s 32nd Anniversary Art Show, “Hung” and the traveling group show, “Draw”. In 2010 she displayed 13 dioramas called, “Hush” in a two women show entitled “Smile Even if it Hurts”, was chosen to be one of the artists to participate in South Park’s 15th Anniversary art exhibition curated by Ron English, and was featured in Longan Hick’s show “Pretty Ugly” at New York’s Opera Gallery. Lindsey’s current body of work is a collection of dioramas entitled “The Flu” a dark, nautical, viral take over depicting victims and survivors.
Aiko, always expressing a dichotomy between true love and the dark melancholic flipside, returns with a personal theme and show title of “After a Long Time”. Perhaps since the beginning or end of a long tumultuous relationship, or perhaps reflective of a creative burgeoning. Aiko’s new paintings are scattered with beautiful images of memory and passion. Her current body of work will showcase a mixture of installation and stencil based paintings reminiscent of her childhood in Japan, and international street art practice.
The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is devoted to exhibiting contemporary works of art that are challenging, innovative and committed to fostering new directions in American art. With a creative stable that is one of the most significantly sought after both nationally and internationally, the gallery has become one of Los Angeles’ premier insurrectionary art venues. In March of 2008, Karnowsky opened a second gallery in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, committed to bringing fresh, innovative works to the burgeoning Berlin art scene. Articles about the gallery, and/or it’s artists have been featured in Juxtapoz, Swindle, Flaunt, Paper, Nylon, The Face, Variety, Giant Robot, Super X Media, Art Week, Art Issues, Flash Art, Modern Painters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The LA Weekly, and The Los Angeles Times. MKG Gallery artists have been included in group and solo Museum exhibitions at The Grand Central Art Center, The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, The Cincinnati Art Center, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, MOCA Miami, The San Jose Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Visit the gallery’s website at … www.mkgallery.com/