John and Linda Friend Art Gallery

Art Exhibitions and Lectures 2011-2012

Please contact the gallery director, Niclas Kruger, for additional information.

Break 'em Up

Julienne Hsu

September 7 - October 3, 2011

Artist's lecture and reception: Wednesday Sept 7, 2011, at 7.30 p.m. in the John and Linda Friend Art Gallery and CU Center.

Julienne Hsu was born and grew up in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She came to Los Angeles at the age of fifteen. She completed her undergraduate studies at Art Center College of Design in 2006, and received her MFA degree from Claremont Graduate University in 2009.While painting the dog park series, Hsu has seen many play fights and real fights in action when she took pictures at various dog parks. She became interested in the differences between play fight and real fight and how one transitions into the other. At the same time, she came across schutzhund, a rigorous obedience training that teaches dogs to be aggressive and to be able to stop on command. Hsu was immediately drawn in by the appearance of aggression in that sport. Many of the images look like either a dog is biting a person or the trainer is hitting the dog with a whip. Inspired by the ambiguously aggressive and unintentionally misleading photographs, Hsu painted a series of dog fighting paintings, based on a fighting sequence from the documentary "Off the Chain," where the aggression is abstracted into motion and hinted with blurred cutouts. As a result, the act of fighting became neutralized.

Following Palindrome. Series 2: Conversion

An Exhibition of Colored Pencil Drawings on Clayboard

Pamela Diaz Martinez

October 5 - October 26, 2011

Artist's lecture and reception: Wednesday October 19, 2011, at 7.30 p.m. in the John and Linda Friend Art Gallery and CU Center.

Pamela Diaz Martinez draws objects with a biting clarity. Her drawings on clayboard are a series of diptychs that are neither reflective nor repetitive, but palindromic. The word "level" is an example of a palindrome with the letter "v" as the stable center. Pamela's hyperbolic portraits of plants, fruits and porcelain objects represent the identifying marks of people she knows. These eccentric still-life are created in pairs flanking a space signifying Jesus: Thus creating a palindrome that describes the relationship between humans and God.

Works in Figurative Collage

Janet Black

October 26 - November 30, 2011

In an increasingly complicated world, the mind seeks a resting place.In my view, the best of art is visual meditation, bringing the viewer into another place, creating a window to another possibility. I seek to find the images that lead me through that window, into a place of understanding, communion, exploration, fun and deeper meaning. As an artist, it is my task to bring back and share what I discover there. Many of my pieces include words that have been inspiring to me, from contemporary song lyrics to A Course in Miracles.These snippets of text offer a silent meditation to the viewer, and join in the collage as texture and color as well.I've always been drawn to faces – human and animal. My most satisfying work captures an expression that communicates something of the life within. I find a connection to the mystery of life when I work with animal images, portraying a life that I can only attempt to understand from outside of it, and yet which enlivens something in my spirit.The images are brought to life through a unique method of combining and intricately layering paper (using no paint whatsoever). In my current work, I am literally painting with paper, tearing the colors and shapes and applying them as I would paint — to create an image, convey a thought, share a vision. Paper becomes color, text or calligraphy become messages or abstract design elements, patterns become texture. The whole becomes an exploration of its parts returning to comprehend it again as a single image.

Descent of the spirit

Paintings and Preliminary Drawings

George Geisler

December 7, 2011 - January 25, 2012

Artist's reception: Wednesday December 7, 2011, at 7.00 p.m. in the John and Linda Friend Art Gallery.

In our world of spiritual life, we immerse ourselves in our daily lives, our work, our rest and our worship. We, as Christians, consciously hope to be led by the Spirit in all of our daily workings, especially our impact upon others, and in our intimate moments of worship. The title painting of this exhibit is "Anya Manas" from a Hindu term meaning 'other mind', when we are swept up into another state in our worship, where our worship is focused solely on God. Here, in a liturgical setting, we are totally involved in the words, rhythms, smells, sounds and sights of worship. Everything has a meaning and is important. All is focused solely on God. Other pieces here are of those in whom the Spirit resides and is evident. They are portraits, but of significant people with whom I've interacted and still do, where faith life is always present and obvious. I work in oil on canvas, linen or wood panels. Most of my work is figurative, therefore I use models, either from life, or photo reference. The photos are set up in anticipation of the work, and I photograph those whom I don't see often from all sides to keep a 3d perspective. I know most, if not all of the people who sit for me and strive to have them on the same philosophical terms as the art for which they're sitting. Many are students of mine from school, or people I've met at church who possess qualities that beg to be painted. My painting style is probably more like a sculptor building up his figure, rather than the artist who is a draftsman, filling in completely as he moves across the picture plane. Generally, I am somewhat certain of the goal I'm striving for, but surprises along the way make the work anything but tedious. Preliminary drawings, thumbnails and sketches are preemptors of the painting. I revere traditional art and traditional church. My goal is not to entertain, but to learn, to experiment within the realm of realism, and to look at and study the work of those whose work I respect.

From Rugs and Patterns to Concepts and Tapestries

Michael F. Rohde

January 25- March 5, 2012.

Artist's reception: Wednesday February 1, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. in the John and Linda Friend Art Gallery in Grimm Hall, followed by lecture in the CU Center at 7:30 p.m.

Michael F. Rohde began handweaving flat rugs over thirty-seven years ago. As his rugs evolved, they were influenced by what the loom could do, inspirations from travel, and viewing other textiles. Slowly, the rugs became more based on ideas than function, and he transitioned to weaving tapestries.

After pursuing dual careers in biochemistry and weaving, Michael left behind a job as director of a biotechnology research lab in 1998 to devote full time to his art. Formal training in drawing, color and design came from the Alfred Glassel School of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Over the years, his activities have included lectures, workshop teaching, juror, show organizer and exhibitor in many local, national and international juried and invited shows. He is currently Co-Director of the American Tapestry Alliance.

Recently his work has been included in the United States Department of State Art in Embassies Program, an exhibit at the American Craft Museum in New York, the exhibit "Green, the color and the cause" at the Textile Museum in Washington DC, the invitational Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland, "from Lausanne to Beijing" (twice), "Houses for Nomads" (a solo exhibit at the Janina Monkute-Marks Museum in Lithuania), an exhibition at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park in San Diego and the permanent collections of the Mingei Museum and The Art Institute of Chicago.

His lecture, "From Rugs and Patterns to Concepts and Tapestries", will briefly describe the trajectory of his career, including examples of ideas, sources and processes.

Harmony: A Series of Time, Nature and Places

Maria O'Malley

March 7 - April 10, 2012

Artist's reception: Wednesday March 21 at 7.00 p.m. in the John and Linda Friend Art Gallery in Grimm Hall, followed by lecture in the CU Center at 7.30 p.m.

Artist Statement:
"Painting for me is a spiritual and poetic experience, a synthesis of an inner world and realism. My fascination since childhood with symbolism, nature, and dreams is reflected in my interpretation of these imagined figures, spaces and places.

My work is ignited by a personal creative process of uniting sensations from the physical senses, dream imagery, and cross cultural symbolism into a visual language. This language presents ideas, moods, and psychological states expressed through the face and eyes, mark making, line, color, form, and composition. My figures represent an intimate interpretation of the wondrous experience of being, of an inner world and dream like subjects, using symbols to concentrate or intensify meaning, making the work more subjective than objective.

Integrating a drawing and painterly process, which includes the addition and removal of layers of thick and thin encaustic, with scraping, drawing and painting techniques, I present the work as an unification of my spirit with a sense of mystery, a longing, a memory, a love, a strength, and an innocence.

It is my hope that in viewing the work, one will discover an internal peace, reminiscent, mysterious, sacred, or symbolic; a spiritual, emotional, or physical interconnectedness, providing a continuous reminder of our relationship to the whole; and maybe, even an emotional experience of the sacred foundation of all things created."