Penelope Gottlieb: Gone

Penelope Gottlieb

GONE

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Penelope Gottlieb: GONE at Ganna Walska Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA February 26 - April 23, 2011 Heather James Fine Art 45188 Portola Avenue Palm Desert, California 92260 www.heatherjames.com

Penelope Gottlieb

GONE

45188 Portola Avenue Palm Desert, CA 92260 760-346-8926 PO Box 3580 172 Center Street Suite 101 Jackson, WY 83001 307-200-6090 www.heatherjames.com

Ganna Walska Lotusland is pleased to present GONE, an exhibition of paintings by Santa Barbara artist, Penelope Gottlieb, illustrating plants that are extinct and forever lost from planet Earth. Penelope’s bold color and dramatic imagery elicits awe and appreciation for the great beauty of flowers and plants, at the same time unnerving the viewer with the powerful depiction of violence against nature.

Lotusland is a world-renowned repository for globally rare plants, including some species that are now extinct in the wild. We use our collections to help conserve plant species that are rare in their habitats. We hope GONE will prompt an awareness of the current crisis of species extinction and instigate open discussions about the impact of species loss to human wellness and the need for plant conservation.

Gwen Stauffer Executive Director Ganna Walska Lotusland

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The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again. -- William Beebe, The Bird, 1906 Penelope Gottlieb’s recent series, Gone considers vanishing plant life and its ecological and biological ramifications. Exploding bouquets of flowers and plants, now expired, burst out vigorously from a cloudy center, depicting a violent reflection of the process of extinction. Using fluid black lines and a brilliant palette of reds, blues, purples, greens, and yellows, these paintings take on a dynamic, Pop sensibility that echoes the animated force of the subject matter.

Gottlieb begins by studying vintage botanical renderings popularized by natural scientists who attempted to catalog the flora and fauna of specific regions, such as Alexander Von Humboldt and Charles Darwin. The artist also follows the steadily growing list of plants on The International Union for the Conservation of Nature & Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, many of whose descriptions are only depicted by text with little or no visual reference. Taking botanists’ written descriptions, Gottlieb creates an imaginary menagerie, all titled in their Latin names, of extinct floral paintings under attack by external, contemporaneous conditions. Unlike the placid, romantic depictions of extinct botanicals traditionally painted, these renderings suggest a paradigmatic shift to the accelerated harshness of today’s ecological conditions. According to the artist, “This art addresses the dire state of the planet, offering visual “eulogies” for lost plant life, and larger patterns of ecological destruction.”

Although radically immediate and innovative, these paintings are also stylistically steeped in art historical traditions. Kandinsky’s abstractions, filling the entire canvas, created a vivacious effect that can be found in Gottlieb’s dazzling paintings. The fervent compositions of the Italian Futurists, who celebrated progress and modernism, ironically bear a resemblance to Gottlieb’s botanical paintings, alternatively employing motion to lament the impacts of industrialization. Recently, Gottlieb’s paintings share affinities to a group of artists like Alexis Rockman, Rachel Berwick, and Mark Dion, whose artistic practices explore the intersections between art and science. Like these artists, Gottlieb presents us with apocryphal representations of the precarious relationship between humans and nature. Extinct Botanicals is thus an exploration of the construction, interpretation, and presentation of the natural world, historical methodologies, and current events. Ultimately, this series of works can be seen as elegiac resuscitations of plants no more, acknowledging the brutality of loss, yet championing the power of the imagination and perhaps desiring a spirit of renewal.

-Miki Garcia, Executive Director, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum

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PAINTINGS

Phacelia cineria, Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas, 84 x 66 inches

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Campomanesia lundiana Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 50 x 40 inches 14

Encephalartos woodii Acrylic on canvas 78 x 66 inches 15

Betula szaferi Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 50 x 40 inches 16

Otophora unilocularis Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 50 x 40 inches 17

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Lycium verrucosum, Acrylic and ink on paper, 60 x 40 inches

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Melicope obovata Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 50 x 40 inches 20

Monardella pringlei Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 40 x 34 inches 21

Lipochaeta degeneri Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 40 x 30 inches 22

Tetramolopium tenerrimum Acrylic and ink on canvas panel 40 x 30 inches 23

Amperea xiphoclada var. pedicellata, Acrylic and oil on panel, 36 in. diameter

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Delairea oclorata, Acrylic and ink over Audubon print, 14 x 12 inches

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Wisteria sinensis Acrylic and ink over Audubon print 14 x 12 inches 30

Pueraria Montana Acrylic and ink over Audubon print 14 x 12 inches 31

Antignon leptopus Acrylic and ink over Audubon print 14 x 12 inches 32

Erigeron karvinskianus Acrylic and ink over Audubon print 14 x 12 inches 33

Heliotropium pannifolium, Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel, 40 x 34 inches

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Valerianella affinis Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 50 x 40 inches 36

Kokia lanceolata Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 40 x 34 inches 37

Mimulus whipplei Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 40 x 34 inches 38

Sporobolus durus Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 40 x 34 inches 39

Hibiscadelphus wilderianus Pencil on paper 60 x 40 inches 40

Castilleja cruenta Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas panel 50 x 40 inches 41

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Potentilla multijuga, Watercolor and ink on paper, 51 x 65 inches

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Gone installation at Ganna Walska Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA, 2011

Penelope Gottlieb Education: BFA Art Center Collage of Design, Pasadena, CA. MFA University Of California Santa Barbara, CA.

Solo exhibitions:

2005

2004 2003

2002 2001

2000 1999

1999

2011 2010 2009

2006 2004

2003

2000

1999

Gone, Lotusland, Santa Barbara CA No $ Down, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV Mid Century Wow, Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA No $ Down, Lightbox Gallery, Culver City, CA Trans – Ethnic, Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, CA Reading Faces, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Reading Faces, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA The Portrait Under Surveillance, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA Home, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA Juried by Ann Philbin, UCLA Armand Hammer Museum Deconstructing the Gaze, University of Calif. Santa Barbara, CA

Group exhibitions: 2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Apples in Paradise, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA Forest For The Trees, Heather James Fine Art, Jackson, WY Arts Fund Award Exhibition, Arts Fund, Santa Barbara CA Because We All Like Flowers, Peggy Phelps Gallery, Claremont Graduate University Draw The Line, Laura Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Blown Away, Krannert Art Museum, University of Ill. Nature Morte/Dead Nature, Rohrer Gallery, CA Looky See, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis Art Institute, CA Small Images, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA Pulse, London with Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, CA Pulse, NY with Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, CA Pulse, Miami with Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, CA Affair @ The Jupiter, Portland, OR. with Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, CA Armory Show NY with Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

draw, scissors, paper, Domestic Setting, Los Angeles, CA Conceptual Stunt Double, Off Axis, Santa Barbara, CA Explorations, Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Santa Barbara, CA The Armory Show NY with Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA North by Northwest, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery, Bergamont Station, Santa Monica, CA The Armory Show NY with Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA The Great Drawing Show, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Women Without Borders, University of Calif. Santa Barbara, CA Dialogue, University of Calif. Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA FORMulations, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA The Home Plate Project, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA Combo Platter, Contemporary Arts Collective, Las Vegas, NV Women Without Borders, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA Site Work 1; The University Museum Without Walls, University of Calif. Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, CA

Bibliography: 2009 Allison Gibson, art ltd. Magazine, No $ Down at Kim Light/

Lightbox Tuckerneel, Artillery Magazine, Penelope Gottlieb at Kim Light

Sasha Bergstrom-Katz, Artslant, Prime Real Estate 2008 Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, Around the Galleries

Madeline Harmon, Los Angeles Loyolan, Take a look-see at

Looky See

Cynthia Valdez, THE Magazine, Looky See: A Summer Show 2006 Josef Woodard, Art Week, Trans-Ethnic Peter Frank, Art On Paper, Draw, Paper, Scissors Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, What this Group Can Do

with Paper Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News Press, Trans-Ethnic 2005 Laurence Rickels, artUS Magazine, The Portrait Under

Surveillance 47

2004 Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, In the Thick of Things

Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News Press, Facing the

Facial Music 2003 Joan Crowder, Santa Barbara News Press, What Makes a

House a Home?

D.J. Palladino, The Independent, Pride of Ownership 2002 Erika Brandvik, City Life, Las Vegas, Art For Arts Sake Awards: 2004 2003

1998 1993

Abrams Prize UCSB Humanities Center Visual, Performing and Media Award Abrams Prize William Dole Memorial Grant Emmy: Motion Picture Title Design “Generations”, NBC

Public collections: 21c Museum, Louisville, KY Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Drawing Center, New York Fanny May Corporation Chicago Art Institute Palm Springs Museum of Art, Palm Springs, CA Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

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Sincere thanks to the collectors who loaned art to the exhibition: Jill and John Bishop Eileen and Alex Rasmussen Doug Nejaime and Shaun Paisley

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Penelope Gottlieb

GONE

45188 Portola Avenue Palm Desert, CA 92260 760-346-8926 PO Box 3580 172 Center Street Suite 101 Jackson, WY 83001 307-200-6090 www.heatherjames.com