January at Purse Building Studios:
Drawings
paintings by Lea Whittington
painting by Lea Whittington

Untitled
acrylic, flocking on masonite
12" x 12" each
Drawings is the first exhibition of two dimensional works done by the artist. For Whittington they mark an expansion from her mostly sculptural and installation work into a medium that, for her, is foreign and uncertain. Though her work continues to re-contextualize forms and motifs from the tradition of high European architectural and interior decoration, the shift from sculpture to drawing in the finished works, for Whittington, is a dramatic one.
painting by Lea Whittington
Untitled
acrylic, flocking on masonite
12" x 12" each
Ex-core fellow at the Glassell school, Whittington is best known in Houston for a sculpture executed for the 1995 Core Exhibition. The "Chicken Bone Chandelier" was a 9 foot chandelier made entirely of chicken bones. With "Chandelier" and recent sculptures, Whittington deconstructs the meaning of her objects and subsequently reconstructs them concretely. By reconstructing the decorative object which assumes luxury (among many other arbitrary signs), Whittington explores the passion for luxurious objects that she maintains and that is also inherent in our culture.
Untitled
acrylic, flocking on masonite
12" x 12" each

The new works, though very different in format, maintain this exploration into our conceptions of cultural and personal value of the luxurious. Using elaborate decorative drawings culled from a variety of resources, Whittington creates what she refers to as "residues of value and desire". That the drawings are separated from their original application by time, intent and technique makes them ghosts of themselves. Strangely, the effect is not a murky obscured view of tradition, but offers a good look at what it was about those original drawings that so enticed their audience, the fantastic and fanciful.

Whittington recently opened a solo exhibition of sculpture in Santa Monica, California at the Sherry Frumkin Gallery. Her work is in private collections in Houston and Los Angeles. Public collections include the Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland.

 

 
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Originally posted on 1/7/99; 3:33:33 PM, updated on 6/4/99; 6:00:11 PM
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