Three Art Openings at The Armory Center for the Arts

On Saturday, November 1 the Armory Center for the Arts will be opening three new exhibits: Expanding on an expansive subject, Part 3: John Burtle, the Room is a Frame and/or An Accumulated Anthrome; Attunement; and Torbjörn Vejvi: Standing in one space looking into another. These exhibits will be on view through December 14, 2014.

In Expanding on an expansive subject, John Burtle broadens the physical and perceptual boundaries of landscape painting, a genre with imagery that goes on forever in all directions, by creating a walk-in environment/ecosystem bound by the framework of the room in which it resides.

Burtle’s The Room is a Frame and/or An Accumulated Anthrome is the thrid of the nine part painting series entitled Expanding on an expansive subject organized by Sinéad Finnerty-Pyne.

Attunement pays tribute to artists who function on multiple frequencies. They flow through worlds, above boundaries, under surfaces, around obstacles and inhabit the spaces in-between. They communicate on multiple channels, and their work can be defined as exceptionally rich, layered, complex, and in some ways “off the charts.” In order to appreciate the messages fully, we must “tune in” to the ranges of expression that continue infinitesimally through space and time.

Exhibiting artists include; Esther Belin, York Chang, Mercedes Dorame, Nery Gabriel Lemus, Gary Garay, Salomón Huerta, Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia, Khalid Hussein, Annapurna Kumar, Trang T. Le, Anthony Lepore, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Fiamma Montezemolo, Amitis Motevalli, Ellie Parker, Gala Porras-Kim, Miko Revereza, Shizu Saldamando, Frohawk Two Feathers, Perry Vasquez, Samira Yamin, and Brenna Youngblood.

Standing in one space looking into another are handmade painted sculptures inspired by Torbjörn Vejvi’s childhood reflections. The installation attempts to control and minimize the chaos of memory and emotion, sparse and scattered when interpreted from an adult perspective, through a balance of abstraction and realness.

Vejvi represents fragmented narratives such as that of a grown man living in his parent’s attic, unable to interact with passersby below, to another of a cryptic castle turned museum where rooms were staged to show the former splendor of past inhabitants. These scenarios are portrayed through playful, mysterious depictions that are personal, social, and psychological in nature. It is through these recollections that Vejvi simulates the unstable yet fluid negotiations between past experience and memory.

This installation is part of the continuing independent programming of Alice Könitz’s Los Angeles Museum of Art (LAMOA), currently occupying the Armory’s Caldwell Gallery as part of The Fifth Wall: Tom Friedman, Evan Holloway, Farrah Karapetian, Alice Könitz, Marco Rios, Corinna Schnitt, Artur Å»mijewski. The Fifth Wall and the rotating exhibits inside LAMOA is made possible by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance.

The opening reception for these three exhibits will be held on Saturday, November 1 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Armory, 145 N. Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. For more information call (626) 792-5101 or visit www.armoryarts.org.