TROPOSPHERE LORENE ANDERSON
LORENE ANDERSON TROPOSPHERE
May 4 —May 31, 2024
“My
recent paintings seek to capture the essence of the troposphere, this dynamic layer of our atmosphere inviting viewers to contemplate the beauty and complexity of the world beneath our feet and above our heads.”
— Lorene AndersonPushing the boundaries of painterly abstraction, Lorene Anderson explores the interplay of light, color, and movement while mirroring the troposphere, the ever-shifting layers of the atmosphere that are found closest to the Earth’s surface. Yet, her fascination extends beyond visual allure. Metaphorically speaking, the Northern California painter finds parallels between the swirling chaos of weather patterns and the intricate dance of atoms or sound waves. Frequencies, both in light and sound, also serve as inspiration, as do the layers of digital information that permeate our modern world. Just as the troposphere holds a multitude of unseen forces, Anderson’s layered compositions explore the hidden layers beneath the surface of perception, from Wi-Fi signals to the subtle currents of the human body.
Anderson’s methodology has been particularly influenced by the principles of Hilma af Klint (1862—1944), the Swedish abstract painter who explored mysticism and endeavored to paint the invisible during an era marked by the discovery of subatomic particles and electromagnetic radiation. Music also plays a vital role in her creative journey, providing a varied tonal background that infuses her paintings with their essential kinetic vitality.
Her multi-layered paintings demand physicality, often full body engagement. Anderson guides the fluid layers of paint around the canvas tapping into gestural motions that render the seamless flow of her compositions. Carved tools become extensions of the painter’s hand, creating intricate, arabesque-like motifs that reflect both machine-like precision and human fallibility. Ultimately her atmospheric compositions give way to chance and unpredictability, yet an overall sense of order and harmony prevails, inviting contemplation of the delicate balance found within the Universe itself.
Many of Lorene Anderson’s paintings are held in museum, corporate and private collections throughout California and beyond, including the Berkeley Art Museum, UC Davis Health Center, Walnut Creek Public Library, Imagery Estate Winery Artists Collection, the Los Gatos Art Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, and at the Kyoto Museum, and Sakai City Cultural Hall in Japan. Additionally, one of her works has recently been included in the Art in Embassies program at the US Embassy in Botswana. Recent exhibitions include: “About Abstraction, Bay Area Women Painters” at the Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, California and the Art Faculty and Alumni Exhibition, at Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio.
Troposphere, 2024
acrylic & mica on canvas
72 x 72 inches
Space Hurricane, 2022
acrylic & mica on canvas
72 x 72 inches
Innerspace (Fog & Flame), 2024 acrylic & mica on panel 48 x 48 inches
Mesocyclone, 2024
acrylic & mica on panel
30 x 24 inches
Heliotrope, 2024
acrylic & mica on panel
30 x 24 inches
Field, 2022
acrylic & mica on panel
30 x 30 inches
ADDITIONAL WORKS
Electric Eden, 2023 with Merete Rasmussen sculpture
Electric Eden, 2023
acrylic & mica on canvas
60 x 40 inches
Rhythmic Echo, 2023
acrylic & mica on panel
48 x 48 inches
Phytoacoustics (Dionaea muscipula), 2021-22
acrylic & metallic paint on panel
48 x 48 inches
Chromatic Flux, 2022
acrylic & mica on panel
18 x 24 inches
Immunosenescence 2, 2020
acrylic & mica on canvas
16 x 16 inches
‘Mini to monstrous,’ Lorene Anderson’s paintings surge with the Earth’s force
Seismic, self-organizing ripples echo the Oakland-based artist's call to chaos.
By Mary Corbin | January18, 2024
The abstract pain.ngs of ar.st Lorene Anderson are an explora.on of shi7ing space. Imagine air currents and soundwaves captured in living color. Forms of subatomic par.cles and cosmological ma?er, even mobile data, defined as light.
“I think about science, the cosmos, human physiology, landscape, sense of place, and chaos. I’m not illustra.ng these subjects but channeling them onto the 2D surface. All my layers of lines reference energy, .me, and a neurological or cardiovascular system, simultaneously. Thinking about .me being layered with parallel reali.es and universes has fascinated me for decades,” Anderson told 48hills.
“Biophilia 3,” (2022). Double-sided-acrylic on synthe.c paper
Anderson was born in Manha?an, Kansas, a few days a7er a major tornado, and lived there for only one year while her father finished his PhD in chemistry. He got a job and moved the family to Ohio, then several years later, to West Virginia. She a?ended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (BFA in Pain.ng and Metalsmithing, 1988), then moved to the Bay Area for graduate school (MFA, Pain.ng, UC Berkeley, 1990). She currently lives in Adams Point near Lake Merri? in Oakland.
“I thought I’d end up moving to New York. But I loved the light here, the proximity to ocean and nature, the open, trail-blazing spirit of the Bay Area, and stayed,” she said.
Inside her studio in West Oakland, in a large warehouse near the McArthur maze, Anderson is experimen.ng and finding new ways of artmaking. She says she aims to keep moving forward and progressing in her work, both conceptually and aesthe.cally.
“I try to push the boundaries and explore the limits of acrylic paint as well as tradi.onal prac.ces of pain.ng,” she said.
The space features a large rolling table covered with tubs of wet, mixed acrylic colors, and concoc.ons. The tools of her trade include brushes in various sizes, a few carved squeegees, and other handmade tools for drawing and removing paint. The sizes of her pain.ngs range from “mini to monstrous” and demand a range of physical mo.on, whether it be par.al or full body engagement, as she works. Music is important. It assists in maintaining a con.guous flow to her work.
“For a pain.ng or series I’m working on, I try to listen to the same playlist or ar.st to get back into that same mindset or train of thought to pick up where I le7 off during a previous pain.ng session,” she said.
Anderson is inspired by ar.sts across history, but on this par.cular day she cites Swedish ar.st and mys.c Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944) as having had an impact on her work.
“Her 2019 show at the Guggenheim in New York had a profound, las.ng effect on me. Her linear abstract forms and colors, how she straddles natural and scien.fic influences with abstrac.on and intui.on, are amazing,” Anderson said.
Lorene Anderson’s studio in 2022.The size of her studio and its amazing illumina.on, provided through two large skylights, have had a great influence on the evolu.on of her work. Large pain.ngs are worked on while flat, propped up on buckets or sawhorses. Sequences of layering can take quite a while to dry, requiring her to work on mul.ple pain.ngs simultaneously to make progress.
“Pouring and staining became my first step as a student. I wanted to break the white plane of the canvas and have something to work against. I became more interested in what was happening with my staining process. I became interested in random pa?erns and self-organizing systems, using those concepts in my prac.ce,” she said.
A7er that period of study, the pain.ngs gradually became more representa.onal, for example, tree branches were kno?ed, made up of dots, or twisted in mathema.cal pa?erns.
“The pa?erns of tree branches came by way of linear drips and runs from pouring and maneuvering the canvas to let paint run free and create its own lines and pa?erns. I strove to break free from my learned mark making and started making ink drawings by rolling wet marbles across paper and lefng chance dictate composi.on or by spraying dots on paper and connec.ng them with long, wispy, wet brushes,” Anderson said.
Next, she began to explore how science intersects with literature. Thinking about ci.es as selforganizing systems led her to a series of abstract pain.ngs based on the book Invisible Ci.es by Italo Calvino. She developed a large body of work based on the idea of floa.ng sky ci.es, s.ll
“Space Hurricane,” (2022). Acrylic and mica on canvas. Photo by Dana Davisusing pouring and staining in her process. One pain.ng, “Baucis,” from this series, was purchased for the public library in Walnut Creek.
The next phase of this arc was during a residency at La Porte Peinte, in the medieval city of Noyers sur Serein, France. There, Anderson experimented with new tools that had an immediate impact on her work.
“I purchased an.quing brushes and grou.ng tools in specialty and hardware stores and started experimen.ng with stripes—drawn and/or scraped. The influence of being in France surrounded by the bendy stripes of the vineyards and fields of barley, the layers of .me, and being in a medieval town—literally being on top of layers of history—fed my fascina.on with layering of .me and space as well as theories on parallel reali.es,” she said. Which brings us to her current work: a con.nua.on in the manipula.on of cosmological themes through techniques developed over .me, a bending of dimensional space into churning, vibra.ng composi.ons at once gestural, linear, conceptual, and mul.-layered.
“I am increasingly fascinated with how paint moves and self-organizes. My impulse is to let it free, by using gravity and force to release the pent-up energy within the linear beads of pulled paint into unexpected blasts and bursts of color and form,” Anderson said.
Wet, painted stripes surge and break into an organized chaos of marks and pigment. In some way, Anderson says, she finds that the wet, surging paint is also mimicking the power of earth’s forces.
“Biophilia 4,” (2022). Double-sided-acrylic on synthe.c paper
“I’m guiding the paint, but the work exists between chance and intent. It’s important to let these pain.ngs take on their own seemingly random direc.on and find the right balance of discipline and unruliness,” she said.
Much of her new work is painted on both sides of translucent, synthe.c paper, giving a sense of swirling lines behind the top surface of paint. Occasionally, Anderson also paints on mirrored surfaces to incorporate the reflected space around and behind the viewer. Anderson recently acquired representa.on by Sco? Richards Contemporary Art in San Francisco, where she will exhibit in May at their new loca.on in Jackson Square. Addi.onally, she is in a group show with the Art in Embassies program at the US embassy in Botswana. Other recent shows include inclusion in “About Abstrac.on, Bay Area Women Painters” at the Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek and the Art Faculty and Alumni (selected) Exhibi.on, at Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio.
Lorene Anderson wants us to feel a sense of .me and place. She wants us to get lost in her work, to allow our eyes to meander through the composi.on just as we might meander on a trail through a forest.
“With my references to landscape, it’s hard not to encourage thoughts about climate change, our place in the world and how we affect our environment,” she said. For more informa.on, visit her website at lorenanderson.com and on Instagram
48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of le?ers to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversa.on on our Facebook, Twi?er, and Instagram
Mary Corbin is an ar.st and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She can’t get enough vivid colors, walks in the woods and well-told tales. She recently published her first nonfic.on book. Visit her website at marycorbinwrites.com.
Copyright © Scott Richards Contemporary Art Gallery 2024
Photography by Dana Davis, Francis Baker, John Wilson White
Design by David Zarovny
Rhythmic Echo, 2024 with Tor Archer sculptureLORENE ANDERSON
EDUCATION
M.F.A. University of California, Berkeley
B.F.A. Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 Troposphere, Scott Richards Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2021 Cusp, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2017 Whirligig, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Swirl and Roil, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, New York
2015 Landscape Multiverse, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2012 Weather Report, George Lawson Gallery at 201 CA, San Francisco, CA
2009 Invisible Cities: Recent Paintings, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Lorene Anderson & Ellen Babcock, Oakland Museum of CA (off-site), Gallery 555, Oakland, CA
Lorene Anderson, Oakland Art Gallery at Port of Oakland, Oakland, CA
2007 SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Lorene Anderson & Jiri Ladocha, Tangent Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2001 SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 Lorene Anderson, Napa Valley College Gallery, Napa, CA
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Art in Embassies, US Embassy, Gaborone, Botswana
2021 Quadrennial Art Faculty & Alumni (selected), Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH
REverb: Sensibilities of Sound & Resonance, Zero Station Gallery, Portland, ME
2020 Gatherings: an Art & Poetry Based Project, Patricia Rovzar Gallery Seattle, WA & Gail Severn Gallery , Ketchum, ID
Working in Place, too, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Grey Gray (Matter), Divisible Projects, Dayton, OH
2019 Abstract Alchemy, Los Medanos College Art Gallery, Pittsburg, CA
On Common Ground: Works on Paper, VACI Galleries, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
2017 About Abstraction: Bay Area Women Painters, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
Made in Paint, Sam and Adele Golden Gallery, Golden Colors, New Berlin, NY
2016 Summer Invitational: Xochi Solis, Anna Buckner, Lorene Anderson, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY
Airborne, Worth Ryder Gallery, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2014 quotidiæn, CelerySpace, Berkeley, CA & La Porte Peinte, Noyers sur Serein, France
Winter, Sloan Miyasato Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2012 Paper, George Lawson Gallery, Culver City, CA
Bridge, Kyoto Museum, Kyoto, Japan, traveling to Osaka
Kala-fornia: State of the Art 2, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2011 ArtPadSF, Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010 Factor XX, Los Gatos Museum, Los Gatos, CA
California Summer, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Purview Per View, DGSF Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Keepers, Skinner/Howard Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA
George Lawson Gallery Artists, Shasta College Art Gallery, Shasta, CA
2008 International Artists Small Exhibition, Gallery IROHANI, Sakai, Japan
PaperWORKS! Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA, curated by René de Guzman
Hare and the Hounds, BlueSpace Gallery, San Francisco, CA
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007 X-07: Directors’ Selection, MMGalleries, San Francisco, CA
The Little Show, Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA
workADay, Blankspace, Berkeley, CA
Winterfest, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco, CA
The Big Show, Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
Emerging West Coast Artists, Cooper Hook Studio, New York, NY
Moshi Moshi! Bridging Cultures Through Art, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA (catalogue)
2006 Drawn, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Community Virology, Lobot Gallery, Oakland, CA
Bridge, Sakai City Cultural Hall, Sakai, Japan (catalogue)
Sketch, Memorial Union Art Gallery, UC Davis, Davis, CA
Lorene Anderson, Cynthia Ona Innis, Charles Linder, Nils Nova, Transamerica Pyramid Building, San Francisco, CA
Monster Drawing Rally, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
SFMOMAArt Auction 2006, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA (catalogue)
2005 Small Works, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Winterfest, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco, CA
The Art of the Good Life, GenArt SF, Design Center, San Francisco, CA
ArtSFest 2005 Arts Expo Gala, curated by GenArtSF, San Francisco, CA
2004 Emerge, GenArt, San Francisco, CA, curated by
Paule Anglim, Martha Angus, Squeak Carnwath, John S. Weber
ArtSFest Connect, curated by GenArtSF organized by ArtSFest, San Francisco, CA
In the Mix, Nectar in collaboration with Tangent Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2003 Bay Area Currents, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA, curated by James Elaine
Big Tree Project, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA curated by Carrie Lederer
CONTINUED
2002 Shikishi: Gifts of Art for the New Year, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
UC Berkeley Art Alumni Exhibit, Worth Ryder Gallery, Berkeley, CA;
curated by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Register This—Emerging Artists from the GenArtSF Artist Registry, Studio Z, San Francisco, CA, curated by Erica Mohar
Orange, ¡Hey!, Oakland, CA, curated by Robert Ortbal & Emily Wilson
2000 Lucky 13, Nika Gallery, San Francisco, CA, curated by JenJoy
1999 The Natural World Observed, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA;
curated by Carrie Lederer
1998 Gallery 319, Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, WV
1996 30+ East Bay Painters, Catalog, Oakland Coliseum, organized by the Oakland Museum
Small, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
Histories and Legacies, Worth Ryder Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1995 California Dreaming, The Bayfront Gallery, San Francisco, CA; curated by Phil Linhares
Countdown 2000, 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA, curated by Lawrence Rinder
Northwest Women, Exhibition Catalog, Wiseman Gallery, Grants Pass, OR (catalogue)
1994 6 x 9, Victoria Room, San Francisco, CA
1993 Bay Area Landscape Painting, Los Medanos Community College, Pittsburg, CA
California Metal; An Invitational Survey of Contemporary Metalsmithing,
Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, CA
1990 MFA/UCB, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, curated by Lawrence Rinder
1988 The Anderson Winter Show, Anderson Fine Arts Center, Anderson, IN
Ohio Designer Craftsmen Best of 1988, Columbus Cultural Center, Columbus, OH
Metal, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
HONORS, AWARDS, COMMISSIONS
Finalist; University of California Davis Medical Center, new North Addition lobby, commission for two large paintings, Sacramento, California 2019
Imagery Estate Winery Label Commission, Glen Ellen, California, 2018
Residency, The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts, New Berlin, NY, 2016
Residency, La Porte Peinte Centre for the Arts, Noyers Sur Serein, France, 2014
Roselyn Schneider Eisner Award, U.C. Berkeley, 1990
Best of Show: American Association of University Women, Ohio Division, Creative Cultural Interests Project, 1988
Vada Beetler Award and Postcard Award for Excellence, “Ohio Designer Craftsmen Best of 1988,” 1988
Pye Scholarship for Painting, Miami University, 1987
Research Grant, Miami University, 1986. Continued in 1987
Third Place Regional Award for Painting, National Society of Arts and Letters, 1986
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lorene Anderson, Troposphere, May 4 – 31, digital exhibition catalog, Scott Richards Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Mary Corbin, “Mini to Monstrous, Lorene Anderson’s paintings surge with Earth’s force”, 48hills, January 18, 2024
Mark Van Proyen, Lorene Anderson @ K.Imperial, SquareCylinder.com, March 6, 2021
Jorge S. Arango, Art review: Listen as you look at the works on display in ‘REverb’, Portland Press Herald, October 17, 2021
Pair of luminous new paintings installed in the North Addition Lobby, UC Davis Health Newsroom, August 26, 2019
Phillip Hartigan, A View From the Easel, Hyperallergic, February 23, 2018
Barbara Morris, About Abstraction @ Bedford, Square Cylinder.com, Posted on 28 November 2017
Ashley Norwood Cooper, "Made in Paint at Sam and Adele Golden Gallery", Delicious Line, April 13, 2017
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, “In Conversation with Lorene Anderson”, August 2016
Morris, Elise, “Lorene Anderson \ Studio Visit”, The Studio Work, September 2015
“Churning, Lorene Anderson”, Artsy Forager, April 15, 2015
SFMOMA on the Go, Lorene Anderson, September 5, 2014
"Aleatoric Art in the 21st Century, A Study of Chance in Fine Art", by J Coleman Miller and Ray Cabarga, 2012
Susan O’Malley. “Practice Makes”, Factor XX exhibition catalogue, 2010
“Purview Per View” at the DGSF gallery in San Francisco, by EYESWOON, November 3, 2010
David Roth, "Keepers" @ Skinner/Howard, SquareCylinder.com, November 1, 2009
Swan, Rachel, “workAday - Critic’s Choice”, East Bay Express, October-November 2007
Batey, Charla, “Work That Makes Art”, NovoMetro, October 20, 2007
Diane Chin Lui, ‘Birth of Ideas: Exhibit Illustrates the Artistic Stream of Consciousness’, Davis Enterprise, March 9, 2006
Aaron Saltzman, Memorial Union Arts Gallery exhibits ‘Sketch’, The California Aggie, February 2, 2006
Robert Taylor, “The Big Tree Project”, Contra Costa Times, June 26, 2003
Dewitt Cheng, “Register This”, SanFranciscoArtMagazine.com, May 2002
Rodriguez, Juan. "‘Orange’ at ¡hey!", Artweek, May 2002.
Huddy, Melina, "Pushing the Limits", Parkersburg Sentinel, 14 June, 2002
ZYZZYVA, Fall 1994
Reidel, Mija, Metalsmith, “California Metal”, Summer 1993
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
University of California Davis Medical Center, Davis, CA
Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
Walnut Creek Public Library, Walnut Creek, CA
Rosewood, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Richard & Roselyn Swig, San Francisco, CA
Cosmopolitan Suites Las Vegas, NV
Four Seasons, Westlake Village, CA
Imagery Estate Winery, Glen Ellen, CA
The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, McLean, VA
Norwegian Cruise Line
SAP Inc.
501 Pacific Avenue San Francisco CA 94133 415 788 5588