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- 20 - 29
The John Natsoulas Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by acclaimed Sacramento-based artist Laurelin Gilmore. Known for her incredible, photo-realistic depictions of flora and fauna, Gilmore applies her talents toward depicting striking, hybrid creatures in luscious landscapes. She explores themes of liminality, transition, and belonging in this new series - Migration.
With works rooted in fantasy, but devoid of whimsy, Laurelin Gilmore’s paintings capture a deeper sentiment past the fanciful idealizations often ascribed to fairy tale creatures. Gilmore layers her cerebral works (including her sculpture, works on paper, and writing) with meaning and her own experience. By painting subjects that blend features between human and animal, she explores her own feelings of precarious belonging in a society that over-ascribes value to sameness and homogeneity.
“This body of work, Migration, came from a place of deep love. As with most of my work, these paintings are the result of a confluence of several, sometimes conflicting, feelings. My child had just left home for college. A trip to the Olympic National Forest with a childhood friend had me both time traveling with her, and space exploration in the alien green on green on green rainforest. I had just exited nearly five years of small business ownership. People that I love are afraid to be in this country. When in doubt, sit with a tree. I’ve always felt we can learn most of what we need by paying close attention to the natural world. For the most part, it taught and reminded me that all things move in cycles. The seasons dictate much of the movement of animals, and we are a kind of animal. Our seasons stretch over the course of a life, and those too dictate our movement. The pain and pride of ushering a child gently from the nest not knowing where and how far they will venture is a natural thing. It arrives at a certain season of life and can’t be fought against. The world is calling, and I must go, as they say. The same can be said for the end or beginning of many endeavors. One can’t ignore the call when the moment has arrived.The urge toward safety and away from threat is the most fundamental natural instinct we have.”
Although primarily self-taught, Gilmore does have some academic training, received at Sacramento City College after she moved there permanently in 1998. Since 2014, Gilmore has had a studio at the Verge Art Center in Sacramento, and she has been featured in exhibitions across the region.
Please join us at the John Natsoulas Gallery on February 13 from 7-9pm to celebrate the opening reception for this exhibition. It will feature live music and free refreshments. All are welcome!
Artist:
Laurelin Gilmore Is best known for her fantasy oil paintings that blend animal or insect attributes with the human form. More recently, her work blends the subject and the environment itself. The artist uses realism to invite the viewer to suspend disbelief, and fantasy elements to expand on themes of feminine power, familial animals, and both the habitation of the planet and of the body. She says, “I’m interested in the perceived separateness of humans and the natural world from which we can’t actually divorce ourselves, the power and beauty of aloneness, individuality, and the celebration of inherent human power.” Though human beings have come to celebrate the potential of the synthetic, the artist reminds us that we are still deeply connected to the organic.
Though mostly self-taught, Ms. Gilmore earned an Associate of Fine Arts degree from Sacramento City College where she studied painting, portraiture and figure study under many celebrated artists including Fred Dalkey and Chris Daubert. She was a studio resident at the now defunct Sacramento Art Complex, and now keeps a working studio at Sacramento’s Verge Center for the Arts. She is one of the founding members of the women’s art collective, Swell Sister Society.
521 1st Street Davis, CA 95616
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