Charles Garabedian to Open MYTHOLOGIES at Betty Cuningham Gallery, 2/16

On Thursday February 16, 2012, Betty Cuningham Gallery will open an exhibition of new paintings by Charles Garabedian. This will be the third solo exhibition for the artist at the Gallery.

Drawn from his appreciation for the Classics, Garabedian’s most recent work focuses on characters and settings from Greek mythology. The largest work in the show, The Wine Dark Sea, which depicts a roughly constructed ship struggling to overcome the vast darkness perilously laid out before it, intentionally calls to mind the numerous sea voyages endured by the heroes in Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many works included in the exhibition feature other Greek mythological characters such as a blonde haired Venus and Prometheus, writhing in pain, dreading the daily arrival of the bird that will devour his liver. Even though many of these new works call to mind specific narratives, these legends never overshadow the painting. When viewing the 12 paintings, all of which are on paper, one remains conscious of the vivid colors and fine lines- simultaneously melodious and deliberate- that Garabedian employs to compose his dreamlike figures and settings.

In 2011, a comprehensive retrospective of Garabedian’s work was curated by Julie Joyce at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, California. The exhibition received great acclaim, including a listing as one of the Best California Museum Shows of 2011 by the Los Angeles Times.

Although born in Detroit, MI in 1923, Charles Garabedian has lived most of his life in California. After serving in the United States Air Force during World War II, Garabedian received an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California in 1950. He began painting for the first time in his life at age 32 and decided to return to school to receive formal painting instruction from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned an MA in 1961. After completing his graduate studies, Garabedian began teaching and has held many prominent positions. He has received numerous awards and grants including the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work can be seen in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

The exhibition will remain on view through March 24, 2012.