Past SPARC Gallery Shows
Contact Blue Trimarchi at (626) 676-4195 to Purchase
“CLARITY” a New Exhibition of Works by Fine Artist Sunny Samuel
Sunny Samuel, inspired by his interest in cellular biology, describes his drawings, paintings, and sculpture/installations as explorations of micro/macroscopic activity and otherworldly landscapes. “Through light and transparency, shadows and reflections, and the act of focusing and unfocusing,” Samuel sets the stage “for strange forms inhabiting new territories; a consideration of spaces, strings, and systems beyond our reach but within our view.”
“Clarity” will run through May 14, 2022.
Arriola describes her featured work as “part assemblage art, part photographic still life. Relic-like reminders of the fragile nature of human existence. An ongoing tribute to women I have known.”
Arriola says that she first envisioned this ongoing series during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, when she began photographing decaying plant material in her kitchen sink. Shot at various times of the day and printed on soft fibrous paper, “the resulting pictures are a celebration of nature's continuities, as well as a stark reminder of life's inevitable losses. Like intimate portraits, they provide a window into the soul, revealing the heart's innate desire to hold on to what it has lost.”
“As it is to be” will run through March 12, 2022.
Affordable works by noted professional artists will be available for purchase in a variety of mediums—watercolor and oil paintings, collage, ceramics, and soft sculpture. Featured artists are Victoria Arriola, Michael Campagna, Elaine Carhartt, Laurie Hendricks, Shelley Stephens, Rebecca Tager, Cynthia Thiel, and Ella Trimarchi
VAL TRIMARCHI "A RECURRENT RETREAT"
ONLINE gallery
“A Recurrent Retreat,” an exhibition of works by painter, illustrator, and muralist Val Trimarchi
at the SPARC Gallery in the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.
JIMMY LEE
With subject matter ranging from signage to building exteriors to billiard balls, Jimmy Lee captures light and shadow with a photorealistic technique that allows the viewer to experience the scene as if they were there as he painted them.” Lee, a graduate of the California College of the Arts and an illustrator and graphic artist with more than decades in the film and television industry, states that “natural light defines form, and creates color, shadows and reflective color are the components that guide the way, and what I choose to paint.”
MARk BILLY
Renowned Artist Fulton Leroy Washington (aka MR. WASH)
While serving more than 20 years of a mandatory life sentence for a non-violent drug offense in the 1990s, Louisiana-born Mr. Wash taught art classes & painted striking portraits of fellow inmates & political figures as well as subjects based on news stories and historic events. His 2014 work, “Emancipation Proclamation,” was based on Frances Bicknell Carpenter’s, “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln. Mr. Wash’s sentence was commuted after he was granted clemency in 2016 by President Barack Obama.
Artist Fulton Leroy Washington (aka Mr. Wash), whose work is currently on display at both the Hammer Museum and The Huntington through August 1 2021—in the multimedia exhibition, “Made in L.A. 2020: a version”—and in his free solo exhibition, “Inside Perspective,” at the SPARC Gallery in South Pasadena through May 30, 2021, will talk about his photorealistic art and extraordinary life in a free Zoom webinar on May 20, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
In addition to his current exhibitions and his Black Lives Matter Residency at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart artist collective and gallery, a solo exhibition of Mr. Wash’s work will open at the Aishti Foundation in Beirut, Lebanon in October 2021.
“Inside Perspective” is curated by Richard Blue Trimarchi of Art Works Fine Art Publishing at the SPARC Gallery at 1121 Mission Street inside the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. For free private showings by appointment through the end of the exhibition, please contact Blue Trimarchi at (626) 676-4195 for availability. Masks are required.
"The Human Form" opening reception by Artist Yuki Toy.
South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce will feature evocative colored pencil worksby artist/author/teacher Yuki Toy, known for her emotion-evoking illustrations. Toy, whose artwork has been part of the curriculum at USC and Cal Tech, is a teacher of anatomy illustration and figure drawing at a number of Los Angeles colleges and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. Curated by artist Blue Trimarchi of Art Works Fine Art Publishing, Inc., the exhibition will run through January 7.
Valerie Wilcox
"Tinkering"
SPARC Gallery
South Pasadena City Hall through July 31, 2019
Tinkering
An exhibition of mixed-media, three-dimensional “constructs” by contemporary artist Valerie Wilcox, presented by the South Pasadena Arts Council (SPARC), will open May 11 at the SPARC Gallery at City Hall, with an evening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Featuring wall-mounted works of papier maché, foam core, plaster, & found wood, the exhibition will run through July 31, 2019.
Wilcox states that her art, nuanced by light and shadow, plays with the idea of space and perception, presenting “a reimagined, abstracted understanding of our built environment” and incorporating “the ideals of Wabi Sabi, a traditional Japanese aesthetic centered on the acceptance and beauty of transience and imperfection.” Wilcox’s pieces often feature wood with visible paint remnants, sourced from torn-down or remodeled houses, “thus perhaps holding memories of the lives long past.”
Based in Los Angeles, Wilcox is part of the artist collective Durden and Ray. Exhibitions of her work have been featured at the Torrance Art Museum, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Mount Saint Mary’s University, Palo Alto Art Center, QiPO Art Fair in Mexico City, Kölner Liste Art Fair in Cologne; and in numerous other local and international galleries. She has been featured in such online and print publications as the New York Times, Style Magazine, The Huffington Post, Coolibri Magazine in Germany, Saatchi Art, DiversionsLA, and Art and Cake.
"Childhood 101"
Photographs by
Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin
through July 31, 2019
'Childhood 101'
“My most impressionable memories from childhood are playing outdoors for hours with kids from the neighborhood. I lived on an acre of land with my four siblings, which was adjacent to a suburban street with typical smaller plots of land. We had two wooded areas with paths, and a pond, which we fished in and ice-skated on in winter. Playtime was the most significant pastime. I was not a reader.
There is not a huge yard for my kids, but they do have a shared parking lot and neighbors. My oldest son’s most sacred pastime is playing with them. In this way, he is very much like me. Our ‘back yard’ is a safe-zone where the kids can explore through their imagination, problem solve, and play hard. I recognize that these will be some of their most precious memories from childhood.
There is not one image of me playing as a child in my neighborhood, yet I remember every path, nook, yard, and friend. It was where I felt the happiest. If I had a small album of photos of some of those moments, I would cherish it.”
Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin is a South Pasadena photographer and educator with an appetite for exploring the world. Wherever she goes, she brings a compassionate and curious lens. For her efforts at capturing a disappearing world, she has received a Fulbright Senior Scholarship, IREX IARO Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Houston Center for Photography Fellowship for her work in Romania. Her images have appeared in National Geographic Traveler Magazine, PDN, LensWork, Rangefinder, B&W Magazine, Black + White Photography (UK), and The Times Saturday Magazine (UK). Her photographs have been exhibited both nationally and internationally and are in the permanent collections at the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, Western Virginia Museum of Art, and the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. For her exhibition at SPARC Gallery, McLaughlin documents the playful activities of her two sons and their friends; at their South Pasadena home, in their backyard, on the road, and around town.
Jade Li (12th)
1st Place
David Perez Espinosa (12th)
2nd Place
Ixchel Carrizales de Lara (12th) – (x2 artworks)
3rd Place
Alicia Alderete, (12th)
Alicia Cerda (11th)
Carly Rodriguez (11th)
Daniel Ellis (12th)
Elaine Gong (12th)
Estella Dashiell (11th)
Georgia Parsons (9th)
Isa Oglanby (9th)
Jack Perry (11th)
Julianne Wong (10th)
Lyric Limqueco (9th)
Madeleine Yoo (10th)
Rebecca Wong (11th)
Vincent Tan (12th)
