Lux Art Institute announces eclectic line-up for season nine

The Lux Art Institute recently announced a diverse lineup of artist residencies for season nine, 2015-16.

Introduced by Lux Founding Director Reesey Shaw – who commented that revealing the artists is her favorite task — the five artists represent variety both stylistically and geographically.

Max Ernst Greis – in studio Sept. 12 - Oct. 3, on exhibit through Oct. 31– a New York native creates photo collage and acrylic landscapes reminiscent of Dutch Old Master works akin to Breugel yet influenced by Dada surrealism.

He overlays video footage onto the surface of the work creating a kinetic image that morphs the scene creating “a living, breathing landscape,” said Shaw.

On his journey by train from New York to California, Greis, an MFA graduate from Hunter College, NY, will videotape the landscape and use it to create pieces during his five week residency.

Charles Moxon — in studio Nov. 14 - Dec. 5, on exhibit through Jan. 2, 2016 — a British artist educated at Camberwell College of Art, is a master portraitist and is the youngest Lux resident artist to date, born in London in 1990.

His works “call to mind Vermeer” said Shaw. Moxon photographs his subjects and then recreates their image in the style of 17th Century European Old Masters with painstaking precision. The result is a work of art that speaks openly to the viewer creating an intimate connection.

Moxon often calls on performers to pose for him and during his residency he will seek out local actors and create their portraits.

Sophia Narrett — in studio Jan. 16-Feb. 13, on exhibit through March 12, 2016 —works in the fiber arts realm creating embroidered paintings.

Educated in Rhode Island, and an alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, her current work provides a setting for what she terms, “honest fantasy,” said Shaw.

Strongly influenced by 15th Century Hieronymus Bosch, Narrett’s brilliantly colored and heavily textured works that recreate bucolic scenes, “envelope her own experience as well as societal fantasies about desire, identity and gender,” as noted in her artist’s statement.

During her stay, Narret — who uses realty TV shows as inspiration — will create a series of embroidery paintings and will sculpt polymer clay statues to augment her fiber works.

Margaret Griffith — in studio March 26-April 16, on exhibit through May 28, 2016 — reinterprets urban and residential landscape, specifically residential gates.

A native of North Carolina, now living in Los Angeles — with an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan — Griffith photographs the often ornate gate designs then reinterprets them into delicate white paper cut-outs and large-scale aluminum installations cut using a high-powered waterjet process.

She uses the gate as a metaphor for urban boundaries and as a symbol of both safety and isolation. During her stay Griffith will construct large metal installations using gates in the local neighborhoods as inspiration and will also gather audio recordings of the owners of the gates documenting how they feel about their gate and what it means to them.

Rounding out the season is Texas-based Angela Kallus — in studio June 11-July 9, on exhibit through July 30, 2016. Her current work uses rose motif repeats that “at once embrace and upend traditional symbols of femininity and romance,” noted Shaw.

An MFA alumna of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Kallus creates thousands of brightly hued rosettes by filling a cake decorator’s funnel with thick acrylic paint which she then pipes into form much like decorating a wedding cake.

The delicate rosettes are hardened then thoughtfully positioned in a variety of patterns on canvas and sprayed to create a non-reflective surface creating the impression that the rosettes are made of wax.

During her residency Kuller will complete one large-scale and four small-scale panels creating thousands of perfectly-formed rosettes in the process.

Lux’s final artist-in-residence for season eight, 2014-15, is Squeak Carnwath whose work will be on exhibit through Aug. 8.

The Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 S. El Camino Real in Encinitas. Call (760) 436-6611 or visit luxartinstitute.org for more information.