Castelli Art Space presents “Susan Lizotte: New Works” and “The Woodstock Landscape,” by Trine Churchill. 

“Each of the works in this exhibition (“Susan Lizotte, New Works”) commemorate loss as a means of transformation and rebirth, a celebration of the past, the present and the future simultaneously.”
– Eve Wood, 2018

Susan Lizotte, Untitled 6, 34″ x 55″  oil and aerosol on canvas

Last year, Los Angeles-based painter Susan Lizotte mourned the passing of her adoptive father at age 91, and her new paintings represent a visual response to that loss. As Lizotte struggled to make sense of the experience, she found prompts and metaphors in the world of nature. With these pieces, she addresses the cycle and seasons of life, inviting beauty and new hope into the creative expression of her grieving and healing process.

In author and artist Eve Wood’s essay for the show, she writes, “these paintings…are at once bold, lush and expressive in the very best sense of the word. They utilize flowers as symbols of loss but also as emblems of regeneration and rebirth…to represent a larger more complex system of loss that ultimately includes love, forgiveness and celebration.” Regarding other works, Wood writes, “Still other paintings in this series suggest a process of redemption, a transformation from birth to death and vice versa, creating a kind of endless circle of emotional complexity, and psychological density. Lizotte utilizes images that have mythic associations. The snake, shedding its skin, becomes a talisman for grief and rebirth.” https://www.susanlizotte.com/

With The Woodstock Landscape paintings, Trine Churchill (b. 1969) explore the era of the counterculture and its ripple effect throughout the world, including Denmark her native country.

Trine Churchill

The paintings of abstract lush landscape combine imagery from the grounds of the Woodstock Music Festival (1969) with personal references found in her family’s photo albums. Small worlds of fictional memory; the paintings rouse a feeling of dream with a narrative of the personal yet universal. https://www.trinechurchill.com/

On view: May 5 – May 12, 2018

Where: Castelli Art Space, 5428 West Washington Blvd. LA, 90016
Website: https://www.castelliartspace.com/