> DESCRIPTION
Sarah
Cromarty's work deals with the displacement of traditional notions
of painting and sculpture, figure/ground relationships, and the
authentic and the copy. In
The Books and Records Show
she is playing with illusory space of two-dimensional objects
(vintage architectural books, nature books, and album covers)
by making them three-dimensional. Cromarty achieves this by removing,
replacing, revealing, and adding elements to these objects - this
playing with spatial relations concepts of depicted images enhances
the overall understanding of the picture. This exhibition also
furthers the artist's ongoing interest with the three-dimensional
by incorporating an installation-based approach. By using pedestals
and custom-holders designed as extensions of the art, Cromarty
integrates the work even more into our physical space.
The basis of Cromarty's books are mainly interior
living room images taken from architectural books from the 1960s
and 1970s but also include animal imagery from nature books. These
books act as a precursor and way to inform her larger paintings
- her new series of record covers are a further extension of that
exploration. The albums are selected either for their humorous
content, such as Neil Diamond posting on the beach for Jonathon
Livingston Seagull, or for their nostalgic pseudo-spiritual aura
like the hippie children standing on leaves in front of a forest
on the Allman Brothers Band album "Brothers and Sisters."
Sarah Cromarty received her BFA (with distinction)
from the Art Center School of Design in 2005. The same year she
was included in the first annual L.A.Weekly Biennial State
of Emergence: Unsuspected Cracks in the Art World Infrastructure
curated by Doug Harvey and was selected as an Artist in Residence
for the Cultural Service of the Consulate General of France. Her
work has also been exhibited at sixspace and Rental Gallery in
Los Angeles and Bucket Rider in Chicago. Her work has been reviewed
in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, and Artnet Magazine.
Cromarty will be showing at sixspace again this June in a collaborative
exhibition with Salvatore Salomone.