Transcendant – The Art of Angelica Sotiriou – San Pedro Art Walk

Posted on by Diversions LA

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The San Pedro art walk continues to be a wonderful opportunity to find exciting art. A highlight of this month’s  walk was discovering the work of artist Angelica Sotiriou. Her paintings have a mystical, magical quality that draws the viewer into her unique vision.

“It’s my voice. I’ve known since I was a child, the only way I can survive is my art. It’s my world,” Sotiriou says. Working with acrylics, she considers herself a contemplative, narrative painter. “My work – I get lost in it. It’s like little portals have opened.” Viewed, this makes perfect sense. Spend any time looking at the paintings and there is the sensation of being pulled into the paintings.

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“All my pieces have to do with looking for light,” Sotiriou relates. Viewing her paintings with their mix of deep blues, rich gold, and shimmering white, she has found it. There is a dimensional quality to her work that reaches beneath the surface of the canvas, and exudes spirituality.  The golds and blues have the resonance of 12th Century icons that have time traveled to the present. When first viewed, we were unaware that the artist was raised in a Greek Orthodox family, or that she had incorporated her religious faith into her paintings. And yet, knowing none of this, to the viewer, her work radiantly expresses pure faith, wonder, and belief. Possibly the best way to describe these pieces is transcendent.

Sotiriou's studio - photo by Jack Burke
Sotiriou’s studio – photo by Jack Burke

In Sotiriou’s studio, the artist’s work, past, present, and in process, all stunningly present images of light and life. “For the first 20 years I created large narrative bas-relief figurative sculptures. Currently I’m working on a crepuscular series, inspired by the beauty of light coming through clouds.”  On her website, the artist says “My recent drawings and paintings have been a personal journey of uncovering and revealing pathways, windows and portals of light and of spirit.” The paintings seem to glow, as if light came from inside the canvas, or the canvas itself was a window.

While many of the artist’s works are large scale, averaging 8′ by 4′, some are more diminutive in size.

Contemplative Narrative Paintings - Angelica Sotriou - Photos by Jack Burke
Contemplative Narrative Paintings – Angelica Sotriou – Photos by Jack Burke

The artist has this quote posted around her gallery and studio:

“I don’t know how
But suddenly there is no darkness left at all
The sun has poured itself inside me
From a thousand wounds.”  – Nikoforos Vretakos

Sotiriou has taught art throughout California, and holds masters degrees from UCLA.  From sculptural pieces to acrylic paintings, the artist has been exhibiting in San Pedro since 2001. See her astonishing work at Loft 2, Second Floor gallery  at 401 Mesa Street in San Pedro.

Artist Angelica Sotiriou right, author left - Photo by Jack Burke
Artist Angelica Sotiriou right, author left – Photo by Jack Burke
  • Genie Davis; Photos by Jack Burke and courtesy of artist

Torrance Museum of Art – More South Bay Art

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Torrance Museum of Art - Closing Reception - The Studio System - All photos by Jack Burke

Torrance Museum of Art – Closing Reception – The Studio System – All photos by Jack Burke

For a long time, the South Bay – those beach-close communities just south of LAX – were regarded as a place where art events were few and far between. No longer.

The Torrance Art Museum, which is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary with an anniversary fundraiser on September 12th, is one strong part of the South Bay’s emergence into the Los Angeles art culture zeitgeist. On the 12th, guests attending the free event can purchase artworks from artists who’ve exhibited at the museum throughout the decade – each selling for a bargain price of $100.00. Funds raised are for museum arts and education programs and future renovations.

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No better example of TAM’s stewardship of the arts – and a commitment to the cutting edge – can be shown than the museum’s August month- long main gallery exhibit, Studio System. The show featured eleven local working artists in a month-long experimental residency which was designed to bridge the gap between artists and the public. This intimate experiment ran from August 1 to 29. The artists were there to create; last Saturday, a closing reception displayed their works.

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A lively, fun evening, the ability to interact with the artists and study their work offered an insider view of the creation process. Participating artists were: Sydney Croskery, Elizabeth Dorbad, Nancy Evans, Josh Hagler, Seth Kaufman, Hung Viet Nguyen, Don Porcella, Dickson Schneider, Mariangeles Soto-Diaz, Vincent Tomczyk, and Valerie Wilcox.

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Over the course of the month, artist Dickson Schneider made his art even more accessible, distributing his work to viewers for free. Artists were committed to discussing the ideas and processes behind their art as well as their concrete materials and artistic vision with museum visitors. That dialog was on-going throughout the crowded reception.

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Also on display Saturday were large-scale works by sculptor and artist Kay Whitney. Her evocative, industrial felt-based pieces were both supple and sinewy, creating sensual shapes of depth and breadth. The exhibit, titled, “A Deceit,” deceived only in the material’s transforming capabilities: the pieces are not cast in bronze, after all, and Whitney is more than willing to tweak and rearrange them, altering perception and meaning.

With shows like these, TAM is well worth celebrating – don’t forget their 10th anniversary fundraiser on September 12th.

 

 

  •  Genie Davis, all photos by Jack Burke

Four States of Matter

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Group art curated by Leah C. Dixon at ArtX - all photos by Jack Burke
Group art curated by Leah C. Dixon at ArtX – all photos by Jack Burke

Sunday marked the closing of this small but stellar showcase for four states of matter – and four terrific artists.  Held at the Art Exchange in Long Beach, the show illustrates that matter itself can transcend it’s earthly anchor, and mutate into, well, art.

Neon artist Linda Sue Price used neon gas to shape her works.

Linda Sue Price - neon
Linda Sue Price – neon

Solid matter? That’s Ron Therrio’s beautiful wood work.

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Kate Carvellas’ abstract sculptures represent the shift of liquid matter.

 

 

 

 

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Works by Ron Therrio, Kate Carvellas, and Alex Schaefer round out the exhibit.

Alex Schaeffer - the element is fire

Alex Schaeffer – the element is fire

The exhibit was both playful and profound, another win for ArtX, which also sponsors monthly art walks and art activities, as well as hands-on arts classes.

Gypsy Trails Gallery – Museum on Wheels

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Osceola Refetoff, Uri Koll, Hayley Colston at Gypsy Trails Gallery outside Torrance Museum of Art - all photos - Jack Burke
Osceola Refetoff, Uri Koll, Hayley Colston at Gypsy Trails Gallery outside Torrance Museum of Art – all photos – Jack Burke

A collaboration of Hayley Colston and Juri Koll, the Gypsy Trails Gallery is rolling up to museums throughout the Southland, featuring different, “museum grade” artists at each stop. “Each artist is chosen specifically to be a part of a museum, to best fit each museum’s atmosphere,” Colston says.  With eleven different artists and eleven different museum stops running through March of 2016, Gypsy trails is, Colston says, “more accepted now that other museums have worked with us.  It’s a concept that takes leg work, but the result is creating a travelnig gallery that offers the same treatment for its artists as a museum. We think it will steam roll from here.”

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Koll, the director of the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art is working to promote the idea of a museum in Venice, while honoring other museums, and recognizing their importance within their respective communities.

Saturday night, the gallery displayed the work of photographer Osceola Refetoff in a solo show outside the Torrance Museum of Art. Refetoff’s work reveals the harsh and beautiful spirit of the desert, and casts a spell of awe for the landscape and the people who have lived in it. His evocative photos are mysterious and magical – decay as transformation; loss and loneliness baked in the sun and suffused with love  – these are his subjects.

To see where Gypsy Trails is headed next, go to www.gypsytrailsgallery.com to download their schedule.

  • Genie Davis, all photos by Jack Burke