Jeffry Mitchell: LAVC Art Gallery

rough patches and glitter
Sept. 28-Nov. 30, 2017

Opening reception for the artists Thursday Sept. 28, 6-8p

LAVC Art Gallery is located in the Art Building, 5800 Fulton Ave, Valley Glen, CA 91401
Regular gallery hours are: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays 11a-2p
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays 6-9p
As well as by appointment

Connected though a playful approach to material and subject, Garry Noland and Jeffry Mitchell create objects that celebrate (and cheekily exploit) the decorative. The pleasure of making through a laying of hands is on display. Noland and Mitchell both truly embrace process, resulting in works that feel immediate and authentic.

Garry Noland’s materials are charged with the residue of their previous life. Weathered styrofoam blocks, recycled cardboard, and duck tapped paint scraps are arranged into colorful and complex images and forms. Repeating patterns are organized with a formal sensibility, calling to mind the loose structures seen in the work of artists such as Minnie Sue Coleman and Lizzie Major of Gee’s Bend. Through modest transformations of material Noland employs these patterns as way to mark time, document labor, and approach beauty.

Jeffry Mitchell’s primary medium is ceramics and he is well versed in its traditions around the globe (references to Early American glazes, Pennsylvania Dutch pickle jars, asymmetrical Japanese aesthetic decisions and Chinese Foo Dogs abound). Mitchell takes a very direct approach to working, often eschewing refinements that commonly accompany many ceramic processes. The resulting pieces radiate an exuberant, unbridled immediacy. He feels that this unfettered approach is essentially relatable to our shared human experience. To explain this idea Mitchell talks about a fundamental familiarity with clay that we all carry with us from our formative years. Perhaps we came to it through playing as children making mud pies or maybe it was making pinch pots in elementary school, regardless he feels that clay is a material that is universally relatable at a very basic level.

About the artists:
Garry Noland, a native of South Dakota, earned a BA in Art History from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1978. Noland is a 2014 Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artist Fellow. Prior to becoming executive director of the Kansas City Artists Coalition (1986-1991) Noland wrote reviews and criticism for Forum, the magazine of the Kansas City Artists Coalition; New Art Examiner, and Wichita's Art Extra. His work has been featured in Temporary Art
Review, Riverfront Times, Chicago Tribune, Omaha Reader, Kansas City Star and Artcore Journal. Noland's projects in 2014/2015 include the Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artists Award Exhibition at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and an exhibit at University of Northern Iowa. Noland is included in The Viewing Program, The Drawing Center, NYC.

Jeffry Mitchell was born in Seattle. He received his MFA in printmaking at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia.
For more than twenty-five years Mitchell has produced idiosyncratic sculptures, drawings
and prints. His oeuvre seamlessly combines high and low references that span religion, sex, nature, fine art, and folk and decorative arts traditions. Mitchell has been nominated for numerous national awards and was a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant in 2009. Mitchell’s work can be found in numerous private and public collections including the Seattle Art Museum, Philadelphia Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Harvard University), and the Portland Art Museum.

About the gallery:
Los Angeles Valley College Art Gallery serves as a resource for students and the greater community of the San Fernando Valley. Presenting ambitious visual arts exhibitions, lectures and collaborative partnerships, we provide a dynamic platform for dialogue, inquiry, and discovery.

Directions and parking:
From the 170 (Hollywood Freeway): exit Oxnard Street, head west, enter Campus Drive to Lot B or D
From the 101 (Ventura Freeway) heading West: exit and head north on Coldwater Canyon Avenue, left on Oxnard Street, enter Campus Drive to Lot B or D
From the 101 (Ventura Freeway) heading East: exit and head north on Woodman Avenue, right on Oxnard Street, enter Campus Drive to Lot B or D
Parking Lot D is closest to the gallery. Guest parking permit is required during regular gallery hours and available from lot kiosks for $2. There is LIMITED free parking available on city streets that surround the LA Valley College campus: Burbank Blvd, Fulton Avenue, and Hatteras Street.
Link to campus map: https://www.lavc.edu/about/Campus-Map.aspx