Paintings/art by people I, or you, know (however slightly)

I just received a routine email from a southern california artnews website, artscenecal.com - it sends a lot of gallery art show announcements. I thought, I know that guy.. it's a fellow who used to work at UCLA extension art studios when I took a batch of classes there in the early seventies. I looked at the gallery site (FIG) and see two of my teachers listed as well. So, a bit of "old home week" for me. And chasing those names down brought me to the name of my cousin's favorite art teacher (whom I never met but have long heard/read about). So, it occurs to me that I could make a thread with the work of artists who are friends, acquaintances, or people that have shown in either of the galleries I co-partnered in.

I could add some of my own, since I'm self acquainted, but that would involve getting the scanner in action - which I plan to do, but not this week, and a separate thread or just addition to/link in profile once I do..

You're welcome to add the art of friends/people you know too. They don't have to be painters, that's just my own primary interest.


So, to start -



"Cold Feet", 2006-7, oil on canvas, 22 x 28"


Clips from the annoucement quote -

FIG
2525 Michigan Ave, Bergamot Station G6, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Martin Lubner "New Work"
January 7 - February 7, 2009

Martin Lubner's paintings focus on his immediate surroundings: family, friends, colleagues, views of the studio, and arrangements of personal objects. His imagery originates in a deeply personal iconography and a certain amount of nostalgia, which is balanced by his optimistic enthusiasm for painting. The artist works in a powerful expressionist style that is edgy and dark but laced with humor.

Lubner writes, "My concerns seem focused on time, the language of painting and the need for an image to arise out of my speculative struggle with paint. The terrain for this is my studio, the objects that lie around, the art history postcards pinned to the walls, the open books of images that connect to whatever obsesses me at the moment. Time affects all surfaces; gunshots mar wall surfaces, nails are bent and misused, feet and legs have varicosities and a water pipe has been bruised by wear and is broken. All convey a life lived and time's erosion of matter. This is not due to an a priori program of thought. It arises out of the attempt to find the confluence of paint with the object, with all the shifts and changes of size, shape, color and scale that creates my anguished surface."

Martin Lubner has exhibited widely and his work is included in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Orange County Museum of Art. Lubner is a graduate of U.C.L.A. and longtime private and university instructor.