Unbound

Edward Cella Art & Architecture is pleased to present Unbound, the inaugural exhibition at the gallery’s new location on La Cienega Boulevard in the heart of the Culver City Arts District. The debut exhibition, featuring new works by Joshua Aster, Kendell Carter, Mara De Luca, Spencer Lewis, Donnie Molls, Ruth Pastine, Chris Trueman and Jeffrey Vallance, considers contemporary painting through their diverse approaches and practices.

After six years on the Miracle Mile, and with almost a decade of continued operation, Edward Cella is relocating to 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd in the heart of Culver City's gallery district. The move prompted the proprietor of the eponymously named gallery to reinvent its space, identity and possibilities. The gallery’s new location and graphic identity is being re-imagined by Los Angeles-based Group Effort: a collaboration between Jessica Fleischmann/still room and Rachel Allen Architecture.

Unbound presents new work by gallery artists and builds upon the organizing principal that contemporary painting is diverse in its methodologies. Each of the artists in the exhibition will present large format works that highlight their unique approach to painting. Seizing on the gallery’s new location, scale and configuration, the artworks in this exhibition underscore the possibilities and challenge the identity of this highly malleable medium.

Unbound is the first of two debut exhibitions featuring a collective presentation of new works that offers new insights into the gallery’s curatorial perspective. The exhibitions express Edward Cella’s commitment to artists focusing on the conjunctive nature and intersecting histories of art, design, and architecture.

Joshua Aster’s solo exhibition, Innerverse, at Edward Cella in 2014 was reviewed by Los Angeles Magazine and chosen by Artillery Magazine as “Pick of the Week.” His conceptual based process incorporates objects as a subject and tool to express the complex and essential connections between color, space, and movement. Since completing his MFA at UCLA, Aster has exhibited at Roberts + Tilton, Los Angeles, CA; Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; CA, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

Kendell Carter’s modified Charles Eames Lounge Chair is currently touring museums across the US in the exhibition titled MetaModern, organized by Krannert Art Museum. Carter creates paintings, drawings, objects, and environments that examine and engage aesthetic traditions of casual and formal American culture. Carter has had solo exhibitions at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL; and Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Carter’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; The California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA and is collected by institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA; and SCAD Museum of Art, Savanah, GA.

Mara De Luca’s new paintings are made as two-shot pictures of sublime effect: a pour of thinned acrylic paint onto unprimed canvas, overlaid with fabric and adorned with custom rose-gold and silver frames that gesture toward the landscape and culture of Los Angeles. De Luca as had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Luis de Jesus, Los Angeles, CA; and a forthcoming solo at Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA. Her recent group exhibitions include OTIS Ben Maltz Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA, with fair presentations at EXPO Chicago, PULSE Miami, and FOG Fair San Francisco.

Spencer Lewis’ sold out solo debut exhibition at Edward Cella in 2014 featured expressive abstract paintings on a variety of substrates, including canvas, cardboard, and sculptural forms. Lewis received an MFA from UCLA and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work was included in the Hammer Museum’s Venice Beach Biennial and in group exhibitions at Five Thirty Three Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, CA; and Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.

Donnie Molls’ cover feature in Art Voices Magazine this past December presented his photo-based oil paintings as a push back against the hyper-reproducibility of digital media that are influenced by junk yard piles and the consumer culture of Los Angeles. Molls has had solo exhibitions at Edward Cella, Los Angeles, CA; Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA; and Kidder-Smith Gallery, Boston, MA. Group exhibitions include Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA; Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, CA; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH; and the Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA.

Ruth Pastine’s current solo show at the Carnegie Art Museum exhibits all new work in six galleries where each room is designated for displaying a particular color system. These new paintings instill her ties to the Southern California Light and Space movement and her review in ArtScene has labeled her a “Master Colorist.” Pastine’s recent solo exhibitions include Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA; Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, CA; Edward Cella, Los Angeles, CA; and Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY. Group exhibitions include Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; Danese, New York, NY; William Turner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; E.M. Donahue Gallery, New York, NY, and Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Chris Trueman’s debut solo exhibition at Edward Cella in 2014 featured large scale paintings that cinematically mosaic the painting traditions known as Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, and Op Art and were reviewed by Art Ltd. and the Huffington Post who describe the paintings as “hypnotic.” After receiving an MFA from Claremont Graduate University, Trueman has gone on to produce solo exhibitions for White Box Contemporary, Sand Diego, CA; Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington, MD; and the Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; Group exhibitions include Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA; Read Contemporary, Dallas, TX; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA; and Central Utah Art Center, Ephraim, UT.

Jeffrey Vallance’s upcoming solo exhibition with Edward Cella will include large format drawings, paintings, sculptures and performances, which like his extensive career and activities, direct attention to both the social and personal significance of objects. These new works present an evolution in his practice by shifting scale and creating his own proposed artifacts. Vallance has exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles ,CA; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Centre d’édition contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland; Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Tanya Bonakdar, New York, NY; and Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens, Greece. In 2004, he received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation award for installation art. His works are held in such public collections as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Moderna Museet, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Vatican Museum, The Vatican, Rome.