PRESS RELEASE
Kim Squaglia: Gossamer
Oct 12 – Dec 21, 2013
Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of, “Kim Squaglia: Gossamer”, an exhibition of new paintings by the Sacramento based artist. An opening reception for the artist will be held Saturday, October 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition continues through December 21, 2013.
Kim Squaglia’s new works consist of delicately rendered biomorphic forms, webs, and tendrils; Layers of oil and acrylic paint are suspended between sheer layers of resin, creating cavern-like depths or deep ocean trenches. The paintings contain an intrinsic dynamism that propels the viewer from one painting to the next – belying the artist’s meticulous and labored technique.
“Gossamer is one of the large paintings in the show. It means something light, delicate, or tenuous. The fragile strings of paint act as a connective tissue between things - thoughts, people, or routes. I am concerned with the feeling of mystery my paintings provoke,” Squaglia says. She also adds…” There are obvious references to biology, topography, wood grain, architecture, and even modern textiles. It thrills me when a viewer sees something in the work that I have not.”
Squaglia received a B.F.A. from California State University at Chico in 1996 and M.F.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2000. In 2001, she received an Artpace Travel Grant and was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine.
The artist's work is included in the permanent collections of The Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento, The Progressive Insurance Collection in Cleveland, The Neiman Marcus Collection in San Francisco, San Antonio and Atlanta, The Microsoft Collection in Seattle, Capitol One Bank Collection in Houston, and Focus-Abengoa Collection in Seville, Spain. Her work has been written about in various publications including Voices of Art Magazine, San Antonio Current, Art Lies - Texas Art Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
In 2005 David Pagel, art critic for the Los Angeles Times, organized the exhibition, POPulance, for the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston including the work of Polly Apfelbaum, Gajin Fujita, Rachel Hecker, Jeff Koons, Beatriz Milhazes, Takashi Murakami, Lari Pittman, Marcelo Pombo, David Reed, Kim Squaglia, and Fred Tomaselli, among others. POPulance traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC.