Casper Brindle

Veil VIII

2024

In the first of his newest series, Light-Glyphs, a range of colors illuminate the interior of translucent sculptural boxes. Light diffuses through their frosted surfaces and softens ...

The Veils introduce Brindle’s newest series, where diaphanous washes of color float on elegantly suspended sheets of acrylic. Painted in layers from the back of these sleek, crystall...

Inspired by both art and science, Eric Johnson creates composite works of pigment, wood and resin that reference a kinship with other artists: to the sensuality of Brancusi, the arch...

The Madame X works exemplify Eric Johnson’s passionate embrace of the sensuality of form. The sculptures are imbued with abstract bursts of color beneath pristine surfaces, which appear to undulate as one moves around their double-helix curves. Seen together, the series is a celebration of the exquisite harmony of depth, structure, color, and lovingly polished surfaces, somewhat blurring the line between painting and sculpture. Interestingly, the Madame X series was inspired by a painting by John Singer Sargent, and pays homage to Sargent’s portrait of the same title, which scandalized the Paris Salon of 1884. While Parisians were shocked by the slip of a dress strap and the alabaster complexion of the portrait’s subject, Johnson was inspired by the sinewy, vertical curves of Sargent’s composition. At the nexus of the L.A. art scene for nearly forty years, Eric Johnson’s work bears a distinctly Southern California hot-rod, materials-based aesthetic. Early on, Johnson was drawn to artists whose work also grew out of L.A.’s surf and car culture sensibilities. Utilizing new materials and industrial products, like resin & plastic, artwork of impossibly slick, sleek character began to emerge and was termed “Finish Fetish”. Johnson’s work is next generation heir to this work, and carries forward the DNA of such legendary Light and Space, Finish Fetish, artists as Craig Kaufman, DeWain Valentine, Billy Al Bengston, Larry Bell, Tom Jenkins and Tony DeLap. Eric Johnson’s works are also acutely personal representations of his life. A severe neck injury, and struggle with intense spinal pain, served as the initial catalyst for his exploration of structural forms, which are also informed by his ancestral heritage - Scottish, Cree Indian, and perhaps a boat-building urge from the Norse. His father, a race-car driver and expert in custom car fabrication, passed on a passion for cars and their restoration. Scouted into the Air Force during the Vietnam war as a fencing instructor (though he never served), Johnson discovered he was color-blind during an eye-exam. Surprisingly, this ignited an interest in color and experiments with layering automotive pigments and clear resins, which Johnson continues with in this series, fabricating molds, which allow him to do multiple iterations of the same shape while investigating variations of color. Eric Johnson attended Valley College; California Institute of Art and received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from University of California at Irvine. Johnson’s work is in many public and private collections, including: Oakland Museum; Laguna Beach Museum; Museum of Art and History (MOAH); Lancaster, CA; C.B.S. Broadcasting, New York, NY; Digital Domain, Venice, CA; Mary Barnes...

The Heart of the Matter – Metal Wall Sculptures Artist Statement by Tom Hoitsma: In October 2019 my family learned first-hand a brutal lesson about the climate crisis. Dallas used to see one tornado each year. For the last few years that number had tripled and the intensity of the tornados has increased. On October 20, 2019 one of these super tornados ripped through our Dallas neighborhood. With winds up to 140 miles per hour and three quarters of a mile wide, this tornado literally came right down our street. By some act of God, the tornado jumped over the first 5 houses on the west end of our street (including my house), which I was in at the time with my kids, but destroyed most of the homes just west of us. We have all seen images of this kind of destruction on television but to walk the neighborhood the next morning, and see the destruction with my own eyes was completely surreal and deeply disturbing. As usual, my eye kept settling on the sculptural beauty in some of the wreckage, especial the twisted metal. I collected some of these broken and bent objects and brought them to my studio to contemplate. On our walk the morning after the tornado, my 12 year old daughter and I bumped into a couple standing in front of their home. It was destroyed. The roof was gone, a few interior walls were standing but most of the exterior walls were just piles of brick. The couple pointed to an interior white door that was still standing (the exterior walls to that room were gone) and said, “do you see that white door? We were all huddle behind that door when the tornado ripped the roof off the house. The air was thick with debris flying around and we all just clutched each other until it finally passed. In front of that door used to be our bedroom (there were no walls standing). We’re so grateful that the four of us made it out without a scratch.” And that made me think. People are so resilient. Events in our lives can break our hearts but somehow we cannot be defeated. Like these sculptures, our hearts get tangled, bruised and battered but still remain full of hope and joy. We all emerge, changed from experiences but eventually, hopeful for the future. It became clear that this twisted metal was the perfect metaphor. To take this material which had been so tortured by this tornado and create something vibrant and beautiful. This work, born of the tragedy created by the climate crisis and super storms, is an examination of the impact of the “new normal...

This piece is meant to be seen; with its pyramidal structures that rise in different directions, MALIK refers us to the dunes and the greatness that they transmit to us when we conte...

This abstract figurative sculpture by Gal Melnick is from here latest body of works. It is a laser cut metal sculpture which is painted with automotive pai...

This abstract figurative sculpture by Gal Melnick is from here latest body of works. It is a laser cut metal sculpture which is painted with automotive pai...