LAUREN QUIN
Born in Los Angeles, California (US) in 1992, Quin graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015, followed by participating in a residency program at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2017. In 2019, she obtained a master’s degree from the Yale School of Art. Quin’s distinctive drawing style known as “Tube” is a defining characteristic of her paintings, which is influenced by the “Tubism” of Fernand Léger, a famous French Cubist artist. Through gradation, the strokes which literally look like tubes, move freely across the painting in every direction. Furthermore, lines that derived from Quin’s own archive of drawings are superimposed on the strokes, creating a juxtaposition of lines with completely different textures. Then, in the short time it takes for the paint to dry on the canvas, more lines of petroglyph (carving) are overlayed. Quin’s first solo museum exhibition was held at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, Kansas) in 2023. Her works are in the collections of public and private contemporary art museums around the world, including the Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio), Dallas Museum of Art (Texas), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia), Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Long Museum (Shanghai), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Phoenix Art Museum (Arizona), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Yuz Museum (Shanghai), etc.
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Title: Hammerhead
Year: 2023
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 208.3 x 173.4 cm (82 x 63 1/4 in.) -
Title: Third Belly
Year: 2021-2022
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 152.7 x 213.7 cm (60 1/8 x 84 1/8 in.)
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Hammerhead
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Year: 2023Lauren Quin’s work draws on prior art history at various levels—image, technique, and concept, all of which are layered onto the support to create paintings that the artist herself refers to as “models for visual indulgence.” This work is one of a series inspired by “Tityus” (1632), by the Spanish Baroque painter Jusepe de Ribera. The painting depicts the scene in which Tityus, a giant in Greek mythology, is having his liver perpetually eaten by two vultures as punishment for a transgression. Although the sight of this bird ferociously picking at a man is a terrifying one, there is no such explicit depiction in Quin’s work. Here, the eagle is sublimated to the meaning it symbolizes and becomes the inspiration for a series of images. Eagles and other birds of prey sometimes circle in groups, riding thermal updrafts, and a group flying this way, as if boiling up into the sky, is described as a “kettle” in English. Quin’s characteristic way of painting with swirling “tubes” is associated with the “kettle”. The term “Hammerhead” refers to the end of a hammer, but also to a variety of sharks, due to its shape. Unusually for sharks, hammerhead sharks are known for swimming in large groups, and it may be that Quin sees some overlap with the “kettle.” Furthermore, colors in this painting, a spectrum of strong, fiery reds, and hues with a metallic quality appear to give off light, recalling the fire that Prometheus stole for humanity from the heavens. Indeed, for this crime, Prometheus underwent the same punishment as Tityus. It is this overflowing association of imagery that makes Quin’s work so rich, creating a fertile visual narrative
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 208.3 x 173.4 cm (82 x 63 1/4 in.)
Acquired from Blum and Poe, 2023
Past Exhibitions
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- 2023 Art Collaboration Kyoto
https://a-c-k.jp/
- 2023 Art Collaboration Kyoto
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Third Belly
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Year: 2021-2022The contrast between the thick, powerful orange “tubes” and the shredded blue-toned “tubes”, the yellow drawing lines, and the sharply carved, abstract multiple lines creates a dynamic interplay. Particularly, the contrastive use of orange and blue generates a visual effect that gives an illusion of depth from the front and back, allowing the viewer to imagine a painting space that is larger than the actual canvas size. As if blended within the intense movement created by the “tubes”, the yellow drawings come into sight and appear to be parts of a living organism or human fingers, yet they cannot be correctly identified. These yellow drawings are transferred from an extensive archive of drawings by mono-printing (a strong one-off printmaking technique). The same motifs are sometimes used across other works, which become repeated symbols that transcend the tangibleness of the individual works. In addition, the lines drawn by carving which the paints are stripped off, are colorless, but through the layers of paint, they unveil the hidden background colors to the drawing. These three elements combine to achieve a highly complex abstraction in Quin's works. Overlapping different natures, the elements repel each other resulting in an unnatural pictorial space reminiscent of the disharmony that occurs in 3DCG textures. Not only by colors but also by lines, Quin's works present new possibilities for abstract paintings through the contemporary pictorial space created by these extremely complex layers.
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 152.7 x 213.7 cm (60 1/8 x 84 1/8 in.)
Acquired from Phillips, 2023