VC PROJECTS

Join us on Thursday, January 25th, from 5 - 7 pm for the artist reception of "Lines and Dots - Thoughts Before Language," showcasing works from 1991 - 2018. This promises a unique experience, allowing you to witness the evolution of Shane's artistry, from early works to more recent pieces. At 6 pm, Shane will share insights during a brief talk, providing a deeper understanding of his creative exploration. Don't miss this opportunity to delve into the rich tapestry of Shane Guffogg's artistic journey.

“Lines, Dots, and Thoughts - Before Language" is a captivating exhibition by Shane Guffogg that transcends verbal communication, offering viewers an insightful exploration of artistic expression. Through intricately painted lines and dots forming patterns, Guffogg delves into the genesis of thoughts, creating a visual language that predates spoken words.

This exhibition serves as a condensed yet comprehensive survey, providing a glimpse into Shane Guffogg's artistic journey spanning from 1991 to 2018. The carefully curated selection of works presents a visual narrative of Guffogg's evolving creative exploration over 27 years.

Guffogg's artistic perspective delves deep into the human experience, contemplating civilizations both historical and contemporary. He views time as interconnecting threads binding all people, seamlessly combining the spiritualism of abstraction with the realism of the old masters. This fusion surpasses conventional distinctions, serving as a powerful testament to thoughts that illuminate our collective identity in the 21st century.

The chronological timeline of the exhibition commences with an early ribbon painting, initially resembling an image of the cosmos. However, it reveals itself as a depiction of chance, as Guffogg would often throw pennies onto the floor and paint them as points of light where they landed. The journey continues with Guffogg's distinctive pattern paintings from the 1990s, featuring layers of translucent oil paint on canvas to achieve internal illumination. What sets these works apart is Guffogg's unique approach of overlaying patterns onto the existing ribbons found in his earlier works. Executed with small brushes, the patterns cascade across the canvas, reflecting his meticulous consideration of conscious and subconscious perceptions. The outcome allows viewers to witness dancing light within the artwork, engaging in a visual conversation with the lace-like patterns.

In 2009, Guffogg introduced his "At the Still Point" series, drawing inspiration from T.S. Eliot's poem, 'Burnt Norton (No. 1 of Four Quartets).' This series represents a continuous dialogue between past and present, aiming to generate movement from stillness and bring abstract concepts into tangible reality. Unlike typical abstract art, Guffogg's objective is to create a sense of depth. The movement of light through the lines in this series serves as a documentation of his physicality, captured through visible brushstrokes. The lines intricately weave through each brush movement, giving the illusion that the web consists of a single continuous line—a singular moment of time.

In essence, "Lines, Dots, and Thoughts" manifest within each of Guffogg's works, collectively speaking of moments of reflection about the nature of being human.

- Victoria Chapman, Curator

"Click the link below to access the Artist Talk, now available as a podcast, recorded during the artist reception on January 25th, 2024. Listen to the artist discuss key works in the exhibition and delve into the creative process behind their creation."

Shane Guffogg was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised on an exotic bird farm in the San Joaquin Valley. His interest in painting began at an early age and by his late teens, he traveled to Europe to see the works of Leonardo d Vinci, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio in person, absorbing their techniques, and recognizing them not only as great artists, but alchemists. Upon his return from Europe, painting became his full-time obsession as he appropriated styles of artists from the past 500 years to learn and understand not only their techniques but also their reasons for translating their world through art. Guffogg received his B.F.A. from Cal Arts in 1986, and during his studies he interned in New York City. In 1989, Guffogg went to the Soviet Union on an international peace walk, which became the catalyst for the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

​Guffogg relocated to Los Angeles, where he lived in Venice Beach and worked as a Studio Assistant to Ed Ruscha from 1989 until 1995. During his time in Venice Beach, he was immersed in the visual and verbal history of the LA Cool School. His work began to fuse the light and space movement of southern California with the techniques of Europe’s Old Masters, while also exploring acting for two years with the acclaimed acting teacher, Sandra Seacat. Sandra’s theories of the interior world of the subconscious and how it manifests in the conscious world became a third element that was added to his language of painting. The human form gave way to sweeping brushstrokes that are an extension of the artist’s physicality, but also serve as a visual bridge between the subconscious and consciousness. His work began to fuse the iconography of Ancient, Classical, Renaissance, Modern and Contemporary cultures, and the relationships among the various times and peoples.

The resulting works contain their own language of signs and symbols through patterning and visual depth. They are the embodiment of human emotions while being informed by the unseen worlds of Quantum Physics. Guffogg is a multi-media disciplinarian, working in oil, watercolor, gouache, and pastel on paper, sculpture in marble and glass. His interest in the world of science has also led him to begin working with Augmented Reality and AI, where the audience can see his imagery not only in our 3-dimensional world but beyond what Guffogg refers to the portal into 4th dimension, otherwise known as a Smartphone. A final element is sound, which plays an important role in Guffogg’s studio practice. Guffogg has what is known as synesthesia – he hears color. Guffogg is currently working with a pianist in Los Angeles to create a visual alphabet of musical chords that correspond to the colors he uses in his paintings. This collaboration will result in a musical score created by the painting.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

​Guffogg primarily works in the time-honored tradition of oil painting, using the visual language of the past to create a new idiom of personal calligraphy. The sizes and scope of Guffogg’s paintings range from intimate to monumental in size and scope. His oils typically have up to 100 layers of translucent colors that have been mixed with a glazing medium, creating the visual effect of the works being illuminated from within.

Guffogg's language of light and color in the oil paintings has also manifested into glass with the shapes originating from the negative spaces within his paintings, creating a visual duality of male and female, organic and architectural shapes. The glass sculptures are created in Murano, ties his sculptural ideas to an ancient history of glassmaking. These shadows have also taken shape in Carrara marble.

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COLLECTIONS 

Guffogg’s work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, Fundación/Colección Jumex, Mexico City, The Imperial Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia, The Gallery of the Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles and other public collections.