Press Release - Holding by Lena Gustafson, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, and Maria Paz
Lena Gustafson
”Repeat, Repeat, Release”
Acrylic and flashe on canvas
72 x 60 inches
2021
pt.2 Gallery
Holding
Lena Gustasfon
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Maria Paz
Opening Reception
Saturday, June 12th
12-6 pm by appointment only
Showing Through July 2nd, 2021
The sun on our cheeks, weaving our futures
We spin the thread that binds us together
We gather here, holding our kinship tight
pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to present Holding, an exhibition of new work by Lena Gustafson, Maria Paz, and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. The mixed media exhibition brings together Gustafsonʼs paintings on canvas and paper, Pazʼs painted ceramics and new charcoal drawings, and Branfman-Verissimoʼs works on mylar and site-specific installations.
Holding surges with affinities. Less like a group and more like an ecosystem, these artists sustain and enliven one another, forming reciprocal bonds as ballasts in a year of turmoil. Their new works, in turn, seem to crosstalk, conspire, and even productively disagree, as only true interlocutors can. A ceramic replete with symbols appears in dialogue with knot-shaped lines in a painting; a phrase twists across a poster not unlike the painted symbols curving around a sculptural vessel. A screenprinted wallpaper merges the distinct vernaculars of all three artists in shared shades of sage, black, and mint green. The works on view in Holding have the quality of arms that link by instinct — whether sprawled in the sun or marching together for a common purpose.
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
”Love Them”
Digital print, acrylic, flashe, mylar
40 x 25.5 inches
2021
Somewhere between an unfurled banner and a lyric address to a beloved, the work of Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo reminds us that liberation can be at once vexing and blissful. Inspired by current organizing and histories of community resistance, the artist, activist, and educator configures bright text as a call to action, or — when obscuring words and phrases — as a disclosure entrusted to their care. Branfman-Verissimo's intricate layered mylar work offers a fitting emblem of what they are about: coming together and making something resilient from disparate parts.
In Lena Gustafson’s large-scale paintings and works on paper, the strange and the beautiful converge and act in unison. Painted in a year of crisis, one snapshot-like series depicting the bloom stages of flowers envisions not just a life cycle but, more specifically, the emergent patterns of change that form when existing environments are altered. In a monumental painting, exacting details emerge from wide, deft gestures of black, blue, and forest green. Through Gustafson’s rendering, botanical and human figures elude the eye, take cover in lattice forms, or ripple outward, expertly, as if swimming past you.
Maria Paz
”Untitled World”
Charcoal on paper
27.5 x 34.5 inches
2021
In new work in ceramic and on paper, Maria Paz explores the image of the angel as a symbol of comradely protection. Paz’s small clay protection vessels — nested in a bed of sand and distributed to gallery visitors — underscore the labor that goes into community-keeping, reimagining the strategy of a replenishing conceptual work like Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ photocopied “stacks.” The elemental material of clay is at once practical and auspicious, giving form to the ethos of looking after one another. Extending the purview of intimate care through these objects, Paz shares the angel’s imperative to answer a call, a need, a summoning, or a mobilization.
Lena Gustafson (b. San Francisco 1989) is a painter and multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Oakland, CA. Her paintings depict scenes of transformation often with figures or plants merging with their environment. Primary themes in Gustafson's work include body memory, repression, sequential evolution, and reciprocity. She received her BFA from the Art Institute of Boston in 2011.
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo (she/her/they/them)is an artist, activist, educator, storyteller & curator who lives/works between Ohlone Land [Oakland, CA] and Powhatan Land [Richmond,VA]. Their work has been included in exhibitions and performances at Konsthall C [Stockholm, Sweden], SEPTEMBER Gallery [Hudson, NY], EFA Project Space [New York City, NY], Leslie Lohman Museum [New York City, NY], San Francisco State University Gallery, Signal Center for Contemporary Art [Malmo, Sweden], Yerba Buena Center for the Arts [San Francisco, CA] and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive [Berkeley, CA], amongst others. For the past 5 years, Lukaza has been the Lead Curator at Nook Gallery, collaborating with over 80+ artists, writers, performers & musicians, in a gallery located in their apartment kitchen. They are currently getting their MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.
Maria Paz (b.1989 Quilpue, Chile) is a self-taught ceramic sculptor based in Oakland, California. Recently, Paz’s work has been exhibited at Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art (Napa, CA), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA), San Jose Institute of Contemporary Arts (San Jose, CA), and Pt. 2 Gallery (Oakland, CA). Her ceramic sculptures explore themes of immigration, ancestral reparations, and community healing. She was recently awarded the Bed Stuy Arts Residency in Brooklyn, New York and is currently preparing for a solo exhibition at Freehouse Gallery (London, Britain) opening Spring, 2022.