Opening Reception: May 13th @ 6pm
May 13th – June 3rd, 2017
M-F 10-6, Sat 10-5
(St. Petersburg, Florida) — The Leslie Curran Gallery is proud to announce the opening of THE HUMAN PATTERN, an exhibition featuring the paintings of Jamaican-American installation artist Ya La’ford. The upcoming exhibit opens May 13th, 2017 in conjunction with St Petersburg’s Second Saturday ArtWalk, and remains on view thru June 3rd, 2017.
THE HUMAN PATTERN is solo exhibition featuring La’ford’s celebrated series of stain-dyed paintings, with an earth-toned color palette derived from self-made pigments and paints. The geometric paintings reflect her Jamaican cultural heritage, her experience as an American student and artist, as well as her extensive travel and investigation of other cultures, both contemporary and ancient.
La’fords striking compositions echo the patterns and marks found throughout human history, including warrior masks, traditionally adorned fabrics, and aerial views of unearthed neolithic proto-cities. She utilizes her extensive knowledge of art history combined with an instinctive mark-making achieved through meditative states. The resulting compositions appeal to us both intellectually and as a non-verbal language of emotive marks.
“My work reflects my cultural hybridity. As a first generation American, I move between my Caribbean heritage and all communities to try to find a universal language,” La’ford explains.
The artist’s installation will also include several objects from her own collection, gathered from cultures around the globe. These specially selected examples that inspire and inform her own art practice and anthropological study of pattern making as a universal means of communication will include domestic textiles, ceremonial and religious icons, and ornamental objects.
“La‘ford’s paintings and the objects that inspire her speak volumes about the universal desire to surround ourselves with patterns, which soothe, invigorate, and delight the senses. La’ford has captured their essence and placed it in a contemporary context, allowing for a visual interpretation that is relevant and timeless,” says gallery curator Robin Perry Dana.
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About the Artist
Maintaining her studio work in both St. Petersburg and New York, Ya La’Ford is a professor, visual painter, installation artist and muralist, with an MFA from The Art Institute of Boston, a BFA from Florida State University, and a Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Florida. Her work has been displayed around the country and abroad and can be found in numerous corporate and private collections across Europe, Asia, and the United States.
You may have seen La’Ford’s paintings locally during exhibitions at the Chihuly Collection, Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum, Dunedin Fine Art Center, TECO, the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art and numerous murals and community projects around the Tampa Bay area. She has recent installations in Thailand, Cuba and Colombia. She is a grant recipient of Joan Mitchell Foundation Scholarship, St. Petersburg’s MUSE Arts Ambassador Award, Creative Pinellas Artist Fellow Grant, Washington Project for the Arts Grant, TBBCA Culture Encounter Art Award, and an MLK Service Award Grant from the Florida Legislation. The artist is currently preparing for upcoming exhibitions at the Tampa Museum of Art , Orlando Museum of Art as well as in stallions in Egypt and Europe .
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