Garden Party

An Exclusive Online Exhibition Featuring America Martin. Anna Kincaide. Mary Finlayson. Michael Callas.

Showing: March 17th-May 29th, 2021

I went to a garden party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
And play our songs again…
“Garden Party,” Rick Nelson, 1972

JoAnne Artman Gallery is pleased to present GARDEN PARTY, an exclusive online exhibition featuring works by America Martin, Anna Kincaide, Mary Finlayson, and Michael Callas. Creating intricate narratives by utilizing qualities of historical and visual meaning intrinsically linked to the symbolically laden flower imagery, each artist takes on a different approach. Lushly romantic or clinically studied, flowers provide a rich resource for an interpretation of meaning as well as a celebration of form.

Reimagining the still life tradition with fresh eyes, America Martin maintains her focus on the everyday objects that inform, inspire, and enhance ordinary existence. Continuously challenging her utilization of color and varied mark making, Martin evokes both smooth, bold curves as well as hard, geometric lines. Emphasizing the texture and grain of the paper or canvas, Martin explores the possibilities of the still theme. Visually notating her surroundings, Martin’s choice to either highlight or obscure particular elements reveals personal allegorical and symbolic significance in each composition. Her flowers and figures are given personalities and attitudes as their energetic marks and gestural lines reinvent each still life into a decisively modern, unexpected interpretation.

Communicating emotion and narrative with limited assistance from her figure’s facial expressions, Anna Kincaide creates cascades of flowers that cover her subjects to explore anonymity and transformation. Headless and bursting forth with florals, Kincaide’s figures showcase the idea of ambiguity between our bodies, identities, and thoughts. Incorporating elements of fashion photography and contemporary socio- cultural emblems of status and identity, her figures define the separation between body and mind. Through control and spontaneous disruption, she conveys femininity, confidence, beauty, and mystique.

Navigating the themes of intimacy, memory, and self, Mary Finlayson’s gouache paintings reflect the vulnerable narratives unveiled through ownership of possessions. Flattening the perspective of each scene, her still lifes provide a voyeuristic glimpse in to each curated space. Considering interiors as portraits that contain their own narratives, her compositions explore the stories that each space tells about the people who inhabit them. Capturing the intimacy of each scene, her energetic lines evoke movement that helps enliven the otherwise stagnant settings and floral arrangements.

Rooted in Pop art, street art, graphic design, and his life in Southern California, Michael Callas’ paintings are done with spray paint and precise stencil work. Intricately produced through a rigorous process of drafting, mapping, and hand-cutting templates before being transposed onto canvas with aerosol paints, Callas creates a surface that is uniform and rich in color. His floral diptychs capture the feeling of being surrounded by a fresh bouquet while maintaining his pop sensibility.

These artists will inspire, provoke, engage and mesmerize. With visual perceptions always changing, peek behind the stories told and you’re sure to find the right artistic expression.