|
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
GBGLA is pleased to present Raymond Logan: Local Icons, the gallery's second exhibition of works by the Los Angeles-based artist. The exhibition features the artist's new cityscape oil paintings and continues through February 20th.
Raymond Logan is a painter of recognizable objects and places but adamantly not a realist. While his subject matter is wide ranging, he renders each with a deep reverence for its unique subtleties of shape, shadow, and most importantly, color. Working in thickly applied paint and a rich color palette, Logan uses deft strokes in surprising colors that, while rooted in what he sees, are fully his artist’s eye’s splintering of reality into prismatic shades. Logan writes, “My work is born through solid draftsmanship plus a liberal application of paint via a brush or a knife or anything I can get my hands on, plus plenty of color experimentation and the carving of my medium.”
Whether the subject matter is distinct or mundane, his approach is to present it as a revered icon - maybe lesser saints, but icons nonetheless. This exhibition focuses on his cityscapes—one of his favorite subjects. The greater Los Angeles area has supplied him with an abundance of what he considers to be natural icons. While broad cityscapes have their allure, Logan tends to eschew grand schemes and focuses rather on unique individual places. The singularity of these locales heightens the iconographic sense of his work - again, they may be distinct or mundane, but that is not what matters to the artist. What matters is that something about them caught his eye strongly enough to make him stop and take a closer look. He studies them, sometimes for years, and when the time is right, he applies his personal aesthetic to create paintings that capture that unique architecture. In the end, his aim is to convey his appreciation for these buildings that make up the landscape of the sprawling and varied metropolis that is Los Angeles - to share with the viewer the wonder at not only the physical aspects of the buildings, but what they have come to mean to so many people over the years.
“We are all connected to people, places, and things,” Logan writes. “Sometimes those connections are based on memories, sometimes they are immediate. Either way, ethereal or evident, they are shared. My art is a dialogue between the viewer and myself about those shared connections—without the viewer, I am that proverbial tree in the forest. While I somewhat accept being labeled a representational artist, I tend to shun the label of realistic artist. My work represents real life subject matter, but it is firmly based in abstraction and intuition.”
Raymond Logan received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1988. He has been exhibiting in Los Angeles for many years - with work featured at the Pasadena Museum of History, the Beverly Hills Art Show, and Laemmle Theaters, among many other locations. This is Logan’s second solo exhibition with George Billis Gallery, although his work has been a prominent fixture in the annual Cityscape Show. Logan lives and works in Glendale, California.
Back to Artist Page
Raymond Logan is a painter of recognizable objects and places but adamantly not a realist. While his subject matter is wide ranging, he renders each with a deep reverence for its unique subtleties of shape, shadow, and most importantly, color. Working in thickly applied paint and a rich color palette, Logan uses deft strokes in surprising colors that, while rooted in what he sees, are fully his artist’s eye’s splintering of reality into prismatic shades. Logan writes, “My work is born through solid draftsmanship plus a liberal application of paint via a brush or a knife or anything I can get my hands on, plus plenty of color experimentation and the carving of my medium.”
Whether the subject matter is distinct or mundane, his approach is to present it as a revered icon - maybe lesser saints, but icons nonetheless. This exhibition focuses on his cityscapes—one of his favorite subjects. The greater Los Angeles area has supplied him with an abundance of what he considers to be natural icons. While broad cityscapes have their allure, Logan tends to eschew grand schemes and focuses rather on unique individual places. The singularity of these locales heightens the iconographic sense of his work - again, they may be distinct or mundane, but that is not what matters to the artist. What matters is that something about them caught his eye strongly enough to make him stop and take a closer look. He studies them, sometimes for years, and when the time is right, he applies his personal aesthetic to create paintings that capture that unique architecture. In the end, his aim is to convey his appreciation for these buildings that make up the landscape of the sprawling and varied metropolis that is Los Angeles - to share with the viewer the wonder at not only the physical aspects of the buildings, but what they have come to mean to so many people over the years.
“We are all connected to people, places, and things,” Logan writes. “Sometimes those connections are based on memories, sometimes they are immediate. Either way, ethereal or evident, they are shared. My art is a dialogue between the viewer and myself about those shared connections—without the viewer, I am that proverbial tree in the forest. While I somewhat accept being labeled a representational artist, I tend to shun the label of realistic artist. My work represents real life subject matter, but it is firmly based in abstraction and intuition.”
Raymond Logan received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1988. He has been exhibiting in Los Angeles for many years - with work featured at the Pasadena Museum of History, the Beverly Hills Art Show, and Laemmle Theaters, among many other locations. This is Logan’s second solo exhibition with George Billis Gallery, although his work has been a prominent fixture in the annual Cityscape Show. Logan lives and works in Glendale, California.
Back to Artist Page
After establishing a successful contemporary gallery in New York in 1997, George Billis opened George Billis Gallery Los Angeles in 2004. GBGLA shows painting, sculpture, and mixed media works and is dedicated to exhibiting emerging to mid-career artists with a focus on Southern California artists. Over the last ten years, GBGLA has built a reputation for representing artists with richly varied visual vocabularies and a strong attention to technique. With artists working in a wide variety of styles ranging from full abstraction to photorealism, GBGLA’s focus is exhibiting work that captures and conveys the moments we live in - in styles and mediums as varied as our life experiences are.
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: 310-838-3685
F: 310-838-3438
email: [email protected]
www.georgebillis.com
2716 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: 310-838-3685
F: 310-838-3438
email: [email protected]
www.georgebillis.com
