Velvet Painting: Unlearning Darkness, 2016
American, based in Los Angeles, California
Velvet, velveteen, and plastic on wood panel, 24 × 18 × 1 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)
"This work is from a series of simulated abstract paintings constructed from strips of cut velvet adhered to a wood panel. Not actually using paint, the varied colours I discover and purchase in the Los Angeles Fabric District become my palette. From darkest to palest, the blue, red, and yellow hues and shades are arranged to move upward toward the light, perhaps forming a revelation. Simple and repetitive labour by hand, in real time and space, is recorded in the resulting object, intended for contemplation by a viewer, not on a screen but standing before it." —Lynn Aldrich
About the Artist
Lynn Aldrich is a visual artist who makes sculptures, wall constructions, and installations. After studying English Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Aldrich received her MFA from ArtCenter in Pasadena and now lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited widely, and several are held in the collections of many major art museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Calder Foundation in New York, and the Portland Art Museum. She is the recipient of many awards and recognitions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts.
Inspired by natural science and phenomena such as water, light, stars and planets, flora and fauna, Aldrich’s work longs for environmental preservation as it points to the excess and artificiality of contemporary culture. Using materials from these very same artificial environments, Aldrich shops for "specimens," which accumulate into artworks that reference the natural world. Despite its earnest challenges to the material world, Aldrich’s work also invites a playful optimism as it highlights the sacramental imagination of such a world