Mari Eastman
Drawing from sources ranging from fashion magazines, decorative arts, vintage fabric patterns and her own memories of the past, Mari Eastman makes paintings that, whether imposingly large or scaled to the size of a magazine page, have an off-hand intimacy that is more typically associated with drawing. Regardless of size, Eastman's images call attention to the complex allure of surface beauty, especially as it is expressed in fashion, which has the power to transform our bodies into walking works of art that speak to who we are (or, in the case of vintage fashion, who we once were), how we see ourselves, and who we long to be. Eastman's fascination with fashion lies not only in an interest in trends or the trappings of wealth, but also in fashion's timeless ability to function as a repository of historical, cultural and social memory--and of course, as a rich source of inspiration for painting.
Mari Eastman holds an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), The Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach), the Berkeley Museum of Art, Monte Clark Gallery (Vancouver), Cherry and Martin Gallery (Los Angeles), Victoria Miro (London), Colette (Paris), Barbara Gladstone Gallery (New York), and numerous other venues. Her work has been included in such publications as Modern Painters, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Flash Art, The New Yorker, and on artforum .com. Eastman lives and works in Chicago and is on the faculty of SAIC's Painting & Drawing department.
Jennifer Rochlin
Trained as a painter, Jennifer Rochlin took up ceramics as a way to expand her painting practice into three dimensions. Rochlin uses terra cotta clay to handbuild vessels in coil and slab methods, creating familiar forms that echo the long history of ceramics. Undulating with dents and bulges, Rochlin’s vessels reject direct homage, however, in favor of suggesting the unpredictable, beautiful variance of human bodies: these are not production pots but are something apart, individual and free.
Her brushy, expressive gestures in underglaze and glaze reside both comfortably and in contrast to the sgraffito drawing method she also employs. Ranging from tinder hookups to Wonder Woman to P22 (the mountain lion made famous by living near the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park), the images on Rochlin’s vessels document the ongoing narrative of her life but also point to the depth and breadth of time and history of which we are all a part.
Jennifer Rochlin was born in Baltimore, Maryland and lives in Los Angeles, California. She received a Master of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999, participated in an exchange at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, Germany in 1998, and received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1991. One-person exhibitions of her work have been presented at venues such as Lefebrvre & Fils, Paris France (2018); The Pit, Los Angeles, CA (2018), Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, CA (2007) Rochlin’s work has been featured in thematic exhibitions and two person shows such as Jennifer Rochlin/Gene Moreno, Institute of Visual Arts (INOVA), University of Milwaukee, (2007), Home Show, Revisited, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (2011); Open Daybook, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA (2011); MKE-LAX, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI (2012); Venice Beach Biennial, in conjunction with Made in LA, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and Venice, CA (2012); Sculptures, 356 Mission, Los Angeles, CA (2013); Machine Project Guide to the Gamble House, Gamble House, Pasadena, CA (2014); Sex Pot, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA (2016); and The Brightsiders, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA (2017). Rochlin is the recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the Belle Foundation (2015) and the Durfee Foundation ARC grant (2007).