Press Release - "Flooded Channels" by Lena Gustafson
Lena Gustafson
”Flooded Channels”
Acrylic and flashe on canvas
40 x 30 inches
2022
info@part2gallery.com
pt.2 Gallery
“Flooded Channels”
by
Lena Gustafson
Opening Reception
Saturday, July 8th, 6-9 pm
Showing Through August 5th, 2022
Painter and printmaker Lena Gustafson’s second solo exhibition with Pt2 Gallery, Flooded Channels, will be shown from July 8-31. Flooded Channels represents a branching of Gustafson’s painting and printmaking practice, expanding on her ongoing investigations of transformation, repression, sequential evolution, and the sensations of living in a body. The title refers to both bodies of water in the natural world, and corporal systems, which can be remarkably similar in shape and function, such as how parts of the cardiovascular system mirror the form of estuaries leading to the sea.
The work in Flooded Channels attempts to convey the sensation of being overcome by contradictory emotions—such as grief and joy. The works grapple with the existence of multiple realities, which often exist in concurrent relation and contradiction to one another. Rather than isolating each of these realities, Gustafson examines what lies at their interference. The works dive into the overlapping space of the in-between, an examination of its ebbs and flows.
Lena Gustafson
”Embedded”
Acrylic and flashe on canvas
36 x 30 inches
2022
info@part2gallery.com
Gustafson’s recent work flows similarly between her painting and printmaking practices through her application of screen printing techniques to her paintings. Rather than painting with the perspective of separate fore-, mid-, and backgrounds, the image is flattened onto a single visual plane, presented as a sole stratum. By flattening the provided visual information, Gustafson offers a metaphor for the overlapping realities that our bodies occupy.
Words by Claire Mullen
Lena Gustafson (b. San Francisco, CA) received her BFA from the Art Institute of Boston in 2012. She currently lives and works in the Bay Area, California. Her work centers on transformation and the cyclical changes that occur within and outside us. She has had recent solo exhibitions at China Heights (Sydney, Australia), Public Land (Sacramento, California), Park Life Gallery (San Francisco, California), and Pt2 Gallery (Oakland, California). Some recent group shows include New Image Art (Los Angeles, California), the Hole NYC (New York, New York), Roberts Gallery (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and China Heights (Sydney, Australia). Gustafson has been commissioned for several public murals in California including Pacifica, Fort Mason, Oakland, and Mendocino. She co-runs Night Diver Press, a small printmaking press based in Oakland with her partner Peter Calderwood since 2011. Together they have exhibited work in San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Mexico City.