The Harris Gallery is proud to present ‘Roots and Shooting Stars’ an alumni exhibition featuring the work of Alycia Anthony, Dicran Kassouny, Mabel Martinez, Christy Roberts, Eduardo Rodriguez, Sunny Samuel, M. Louise Stanley and Susie Stockholm with an exhibition essay by Matthew Breatore.
‘Roots and Shooting Stars’ celebrates a multi generational selection of La Verne alumni whose work ranges from figurative painting to graphic design and from abstract painting to fashion apparel. This exhibition juxtaposes artists and designers, whose academic foundations are rooted at the University of La Verne and whose diverse ideas and practices have charted ambitious trajectories and created magnificent experiences.
Once classmates and now design partners, Alycia Anthony and Mabel Martinez founded 3rd Season, a textile design studio that specializes in hand made apparel. Their designs integrate traditional dying techniques with contemporary forms and abstract patterns.
Eduardo Rodriguez and M. Louise Stanley utilize figurative representation to create rich narratives. With draftsman’s detail and graphic precision, Rodriguez blends traditional and digital media to design and develop heroic characters for fantastic scenarios. Stanley’s gouache paintings draw inspiration from Italian masters; her themes of voyeurism and modern romance interweave fact and fiction to present allegoric events.
Christy Roberts and Dicran Kassouny embrace a politically aware and activist minded approach to art making. Roberts’ performance based work focuses on gender and environmental issues, while her recent paintings reflect on the dichotomy between personal narrative and external conflict. Kassouny combines bold imagery and carefully composed texts to create graphic works that pose questions about religion and war.
Colorful and layered abstract paintings by Sunny Samuel and Susie Stockholm examine intimate perspectives and spatial dynamics. Scanning across Samuel’s work, one discovers translucent color passages that seem to compress and produce prismatic light sensations. Stockholm’s geometrically composed abstractions allude to city grids; textured surfaces and saturated colors activate the intersecting urban structures.
