Chad Attie and Ashley Hagen: Take Five-Series 3

The AndrewShire Gallery, is pleased to present Take Five, a summer series of two and three-person short exhibitions pairing artists whose work plays off each other though compelling visual and conceptual dynamics.
Veteran Los Angeles-based artists Doug Harvey and Skip Arnold open this series of shows with an exploration of their respective artistic approaches, culminating in a unique interaction between the artists and their works. Harvey will present new large-scale drawings and photographs and Arnold will present video works and stills from recent projects for the exhibition.
The second show opening with Matthew May, Pontus Willfors, and Andre Yi, brings together three artists whose exploration of nature has been the basis of their work over the last several years. Matthew May will exhibit a new body of freestanding and wall-hanging ceramic works. Pontus Willfors creates organic sculptures from both natural and processed wood in a unique re-integration of nature. Andre Yi will present a series mixed media wall hanging works depicting bird’s nests.
Chad Attie and Ashley Hagen’s obsessive work plays off each other with high energy. Attie, best known for his densely layered collages, will continue his exploration of quirky narratives he develops from appropriated imagery that he collects on his weekly visits to thrift stores and swap meets. Hagen also pursues a narrative theme through an autobiographical investigation. Her multi-layered sculptural works work both on the macro and micro level inviting the viewer to “take a closer look.”

Tanya Brodsky and Allen Tombello both create artworks from a myriad of media. Brodsky developed a new series of sculptural landscapes of mountains on reconstituted furniture pieces. Tombello, in an equally dynamic fashion, has created abstracted works that may remind one of windows in French Medieval Cathedrals. These are not made from stained glass, but rather from Tombello’s own concoction of materials that includes a silvery looking plumber’s tape.
Mira Schnedler and Chris Trueman are painters in the traditional sense, but both push the limits of the media. Schnedler, who recently moved to Los Angeles from Berlin, brings with her an unusual sensibility to the media. Loose and rough, her works often seem to be on the point of disintegration. Trueman explores painting through various acrylic media including traditional acrylic paints and acrylic spray paints. Through his complex integration of these materials Trueman creates paintings that are both gestural and geometric.
This series of short exhibitions is an intense investigation of work by these established, mid-career and emerging artists. Through this concentrated grouping of shows, the AndrewShire Gallery has created a new artist dynamic for the gallery, which will soon be celebrating its 24th anniversary.