Studio view

This summer PR dropped in on Lauren Luloff's light-filled Brooklyn studio. Lauren first came to our attention with her 2009 solo show at Sunday L.E.S. Her works sit somewhere between painting and sculpture, sensitivity and brash expressionism.

studio view

When making paintings, Luloff' starts with a self-built frame that may or may not contain areas built out to create interruptions and tension on the surface. Using bed sheets and rabbit skin glue, she applies the sheets in a fashion as to reveal the formed structures of the support. The application of the sheets becomes a gesture as if she is painting with a really large brush. Once the sheet are applied, she then paints passages of flat areas or gestural marks to break up the surface further. The sheets are used to suggest home and intimacy, creating a dialogue of vulnerability on the part of the artist and viewer alike.

Pink with Wolf, 2010
oil on bed sheets and fabric, 77" x 81" x 4"

Pregnant Geometry, reverse, 2010
oil on bed sheets and fabric, 44" x 49" x 20"

What makes Luloff's work fresh is her ability to use the vocabulary of the New York School painters, that of raw expressionism through process to a more sensitive and soft spoken means. The existential struggle of the artist is not present but instead an artist who is emerged in her personal discovery and welcomes us to come along.

Mountains with Fluorescence, 2008
oil on bed sheets , 84" x 72" x 12"

In her own words: "Patterns from the sheets offer a harder edge line in contrast with my organic brush marks. The patterns have a nostalgic quality and act as signifiers of moments in one's history. In my paintings and installations I create immersive spaces, where it is an event to look, and also a site of events that have taken place. I am curious about combinations of works in relation to each other as they create a constellation of movement among them."

studio view from left to right Pregnant Geometry and Kites reverse.

Venus, 2009
oil on bed sheets, wood, 60" x 24" x 36"

The artist in her studio

Blue Earth, 2010
oil on bed sheets, 84" x 66" x 6"

Striped, 2010
bedsheet, 60" x 24" x 36"

studio view

Detail of Woven, an installation at Secret Project Robot 2010
wood, fabric, paint,plastic, dimensions variable

Past exhibitions include: The World's Greatest, Daily Operation, Brookyln, NY; . Domestic City, Kidd Yellin, Brooklyn, NY curated by Nichole van Beek and Vince Contarino; Oculus Imaginationis, Horton and Co., NY; and From the Sheets, Sunday L.E.S. NY

-Kris Chatterson, 08.17.10