MONIQUE VAN GENDEREN

March 2 – April 8, 2006

Monique van Genderen received a B.F.A from the University of California, San Diego in 1988 and an M.F.A from California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, in 1991.

During 2006 she has been selected to undertake the project of creating a large wall mural at the entrance of the UCLA Hammer Museum and she has been chosen for Basel Art Unlimited 2006.

Monique van Genderen creates large abstract paintings made out of oil, enamel and vinyl, applied on wood panels or on wall. These vibrant abstractions synthesize painting, drawing, collage, and site-specific, wall-based installations.

Her works play with a sense of illusion and depth and her installations usually replicate aspects of the interior architecture or the decorative elements of each space.

For her first show in the Bernier-Eliades Gallery she will present one wall based installation, paintings on wood panels, and one work with vinyl directly applied on the wall.

The extraordinary range of color and effects afforded by the materials she uses, provides Van Genderen with a palette totally devoid of traditional paint. Installed on the gallery wall or a panel, her colors are softly and variably reflective, creating an illusion of shifting depth that is as mesmerizing as it is disconcerting. The artist is also using vinyl with such a painterly manner that it finally transcends its functional roots.

Some of her paintings are strongly related to drawing, while others are so densely layered they appear more like collage.

There is an undeniable topographic component in many of van Genderen’s works –areas of pond or desertlike colors and bird’s-eye views of tiny elements that could be read as rock formations or rooftops. Others are pure abstractions: undulation bands of multihued stripes that butt against organic mounds, sinewy lassos of vinyl that meander in and out of the picture and hard-edged decals that are superimposed on one another. Whatever the reading of her works, Van Genderen is reformulating the language of abstract painting, stripping it down and reanimating it with her unique materials and resonant aesthetic. (Stacey Schmidt).

The gallery remains open Tue- Fri, 10:30 – 20:00 and on Saturday, 12:00 – 16:00.