PRESS RELEASE

Narrations

• Edward del Rosario

• Susan Jamison

• Marie Sivak

• Abdelkader Benchamma

• Norma Minkowitz

• Kiel Johnson

• Marie von Heyl

Opening Thursday, January 17, 2008

Exhibition continues through March 1, 2008

The Nancy Margolis Gallery is to exhibit works on paper by seven artists who create visual stories pulled from the subconscious, observations of reality, personal symbolism, and fictional fantasies. The simple materials, graphite, paint, and paper require little preparation for the artist to get started. The seven artists in Narrations are gifted draftsmen/women, and the work shows exacting concentration in spite of the spontaneous nature of the medium. Be they light and funny, dark and frightening, the outcome is carefully drafted minimalist drawings of quirky, strange, ambiguous scenes and figures.

Kiel Johnson, based in California, uses chance occurrences and daily observations to create ‘factual fictions’ in his monumental drawings mounted on panels. Drawn in graphite, Johnson’s work depicts architectural scenes of the ‘Port of L.A.’; part truth, part complex fiction. Johnson received the 2007 Durfee Foundation ARC Grant and his work is in public and private collections in Los Angeles.