Opening Reception: December 13, 6-8pm

2024 ArtLab Alumni Exhibition

Featuring: Axel Leonhardt, Emmanuel Balderrama Moreno, Jay Lynx, Zaida Sever

Exhibition Dates: December 13 - January 18 (closed for holidays December 23 - January 5)

Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Friday 12-5pm, Saturday 12-4pm

Participating ArtLab Alumni Artists:

Axel Leonhardt: FROM SCRATCH: A Love Letter to Soup, Garlic, and Onions

I enjoy the amount of control in using water based paints through the level of transparency and the color mixing, but also have come to appreciate the lack of command over how the paint will dry. Its occasional unforgiving nature reminds me of cooking. This body of work combines my love for making food from scratch (most especially for others) and painting in my favorite medium. Through communal foods such as soups, I want to explore the need to step away from the fast-paced ideals of capitalism and to embrace healing by way of processing, mourning, and deep connections. I believe that much like a broth, all progress is valuable. Even if it seems like something is just barely simmering, every action leads towards the success of the soup. As I age into my twenties, I want to catalog the ways in which I’m coping with living in a non-sustainable system. I firmly believe that drawing closer to our communities and emphasizing caring for one another in ways void of transaction will help lead us towards sustainability.

Emmanuel Balderrama Moreno: Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground

“Life is beautiful. Really it is. Full of beauty and Illusions. Life is great. Without it, you’d be dead.” - Gummo (1997) 

Heavily inspired by gospel blues, specifically the music of Blind Willie Johnson, within these works there is a sadness with an underpinning of hope. Tip toeing between life and death, tenderness and violence, longevity and impermanence these works aim to remind you of the beauty of life in trying times in an, at times, ugly world.

For this series of charcoal drawings subjects were pulled from crime scene photos, ripped from the internet and referenced from film.  In reappropriating these images, faults of the hand perform the same function as the brain does with memory: under and over emphasizing details ultimately artifacting your perception.

Jay Lynx: Cracking the Egg

My inspiration came from the concept of transformation symbolized by the "Egg Cracking." This metaphor reflects moments of self-discovery and change. Once the shell is broken, it signals a point of no return - a movement towards the authentic self. 

The process of cracking and removing the shell can feel like an unexpected battle to connect with one's true self. Once the process has begun it can be painful and tormenting, but as one eases into the battle, the question “was it a battle in the first place” echoes in the now hollow shell. Euphoria, joy, and gracefulness emerge from  this experience. 

The pieces in this exhibition represent the emotional journey through stages of resistance, anguish, grief, growth, and acceptance. They reveal the colorful essence of a person hidden away underneath the shell.

Zaida Sever: Modus Operandi

Modus Operandi is an experimental series of paintings, helping Sever expand on which combinations of patterns, textures, and colors are best suited for her more elaborate pieces and their themes. Her murals and larger works often contain figures interacting within or against an abstract background; a more pop-art like style mildly inspired by the compositions of Kehinde Wiley. 

These bite-sized studies stand on their own merit thanks to their range of sheen and hues. The only in-depth planning was reserved for color schemes. What techniques were used or the order of layers were far more spontaneous, yet clean linework and smooth gradients are consistent throughout. Together, this series analyzes the odd crossroads where impulsivity and perfectionism meet, and how those conjoining forces may be utilized in future creative endeavors.