flesh / dirt / planets
Michael Napper
new paintings
Also featuring
Site-Generated Installation by
Leyla Cardenas
May 14 - June 25, 2005
d.e.n. contemporary art is pleased to
present flesh / dirt / planets, an exhibition of new
paintings and works on paper by Los Angeles artist Michael Napper.
In Napper’s abstract compositions, a variety of line, layers, and
stains add up and evolve into a terrain of growth, loss, and broken language.
Incorporating scribbled notes and simple drawings in graphite, traces
of dry pigment, and patches of dense oil paint, such discord of surface
and line evoke an association to flesh, earth, and a reticent desire for
communication. Emerging in the work is an atmosphere of visceral transmission,
a landscape of matter and process, where each piece registers as a map
of intimacy and introversion.
Born in Pasadena, Napper currently lives in Los Angeles. His work is included
in private collections found nationally as well as in several countries
including Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and China. His artwork is also featured
throughout the book of collected poetry by novelist/poet/playwright Dan
Fante.
Featured in the Project Room is a sculptural installation by Leyla
Cardenas. In Cardenas’ work, she continues to explore ways
of documenting and recycling architectonic and urban surfaces. Materials
of found wood, shingles, string, and pins suggest a dialogue between strength
and vulnerability, between hope and despair, and a desire to structure
the delicate and fragmented into shelter or home.
Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Cardenas recently earned her
M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Both artists will be in attendance at the opening reception on Saturday,
May 14, from 5 – 8 pm.
For additional information and visual material, please contact the gallery
at (310) 559-3023 or info@dencontemporaryart.com