ARTIST TALK
Adam Harrison in Conversation with John Seed
Friday April 20th, 12noon

Join us for an artist talk by Adam Harrison and a conversation between Harrison and writer/curator/painter John Seed in conjunction with Harrison’s solo exhibition, The Way I See It: On-site Paintings of the Los Angeles Landscape.
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PRESS RELEASE
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George Billis Gallery is pleased to present Adam Harrison: As I See It: On-site Paintings of the Los Angeles Landscape, the gallery’s second solo exhibition of the artist’s work. The exhibition features the artist’s new body of large scale urban plein air oil paintings and continues through May 12th.

For the last two and a half years, Harrison has been working on a new body of large-scale oil paintings of Los Angeles and Long Beach, working strictly on location.  Over the course of the approximately 18 months he spends on each painting, the artist himself becomes part of landscape and the community he is working in.  Harrison makes a small mark for each of his feet wherever he is painting and returns to the exact same location day after day.

Over the months, not only does he experience the changing light of the different seasons, but he comes to know the community he is working in very intimately.  Curious local residents stop to chat or bring a cup of coffee and  check on the progress - for the artist, this has become an unintended and fascinating part of the process.   This simple practice of long-term observation of the community and surroundings slowly moves from eye to hand to canvas and a painting emerges.

While the artist’s perspective and the physical landscape remain the same over the time taken to create the painting, the light changes dramatically.  The different angles and intensities of light over the course of a year play a huge part in Harrison’s work.  Shadows are painted in and then painted over as the artist experiences a new time of year and new types of light that better suit the composition.  This slow evolution of the painting lends itself to a richly worked surface and play of geometries of light and shadow.
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Adam Harrison received his BFA from Laguna College of Art in 2005 and his MFA from California State University at Long Beach in 2012.  The artist was recently awarded a Borgo Finocchieto Artist Residency in Tuscany, Italy in addition to receiving the Associates of Brand Library and Art Center Award and Best of show - Representational Works by The Art Studio in addition to participating in Mobile Arts and Architecture Exhibits: Temporary Art Installations which was funded by the Arts Council of Long Beach, CA.  Harrison lives and works in Los Angeles.

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George Billis Gallery opened its second location in the Culver City area of Los Angeles in 2004 and marks its 15th year in the Chelsea arts district in New York City. George Billis shows work by both emerging and established artists. For more information please contact the gallery at:

2716 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: 310-838-3685
F: 310-838-3438
email: [email protected]
www.georgebillis.com