Archive for March, 2010

KIMBERLY BROOKS: Daily Serving

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

KIMBERLY BROOKS: The Stylist Project, by Allison Gibson

March 17, 2010

The art world. It’s way more serious and important than every other industry! This thinking at least seems to persist even though the field of contemporary art has maintained an open flirtation with its sassy sister, the fashion industry, since long before even Andy Warhol trotted his wacky wigs around Studio 54 with the likes of Diane von Fürstenberg. There is a mutual fascination between the two fields, and yet it seems that the art world would prefer to keep its consorting with the fashion industry confined strictly to social events, rather than consider fashion (so low-brow!) as a worthy subject matter for actual works of art.

Los Angeles-based artist, Kimberly Brooks‘, current solo show at Taylor De Cordoba gallery in Culver City breaks with this norm to explore the intrigue of the fashion industry’s most iconic stylemakers—without the precept of farce or condemnation. The Stylist Project (on view through April 3rd) presents Brooks’ latest body of work—a series of oil painted portraits of fashion industry insiders, including stylist to the starts and Bravo TV fixture, Rachel Zoe, and award winning costume designer and Madonnaʼs personal stylist Arianne Phillips, among others.

The work on view blends the fields of art and fashion astutely, presenting the fashionable set as they have styled themselves, while at the same time drawing upon the ages-old artistic tradition of portraiture. The regal positions of some of the sitters recall Renaissance royals, and the sprawled poses of others touch on the early Modern depiction of courtesans, such as Edouard Manet’s Olympia

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KIMBERLY BROOKS: Los Angeles Times Magazine

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

ROGUES’ GALLERY

Pop stars have fascinated contemporary artists for years—think Andy Warhol, Richard Prince and Elizabeth Peyton. Painter Kimberly Brooks now trains her eye on those who labor to make them popular. The Stylist Project includes portraits of L.A. tastemakers, including (clockwise from top left) celebrity stylist Elizabeth Stewart, Rose Apodaca (co-owner of A+R) and costume designer Janie Bryant (Mad Men). Through April 3. Taylor De Cordoba Gallery, 2660 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A., 310-559-9156, taylordecordoba.com.

Click HERE to see the full article.

KIMBERLY BROOKS: 944 Magazine

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010


Kimberly Brooks Gets Meta with the Stylist Project.

DANIELLE NELSON MOURNING: Homecoming

Monday, March 1st, 2010

May 22 – June 26, 2010

Taylor De Cordoba is proud to present Homecoming, photographs and film by San Francisco-based artist Danielle Nelson Mourning. The exhibition will run from May 22 – June 26, 2010, with an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, May 22 from 6 – 8PM.

For the artist’s solo debut at Taylor De Cordoba, Mourning will exhibit films and strikingly vivid ink jet photographs taken in areas laden with her family history. Traveling between Niagara Falls, New York and Marks, Mississippi the artist staged a series of primarily self-portraits wherein she slips in and out of the homes, attire and settings of her relatives. A desire to surround herself with family lore, which she had only seen in snapshots and heard in oft-repeated stories, motivated her desire to recreate/create this history. The resulting photographs inhabit an eerie space between real and fake. She plays many characters: a 1950s housewife; a1960s wife on the eve of the sexual revolution; and a 1970s liberated woman, with the mood moving from Alfred Hitchcock to John Cassavetes and back again. While at first glance it appears as though the photographs were taken during those past eras, there is something knowing in the artist’s eye, or perhaps her stance, that reminds viewers of the current historical moment.

The work goes deeper in the series of images Mourning staged in Ireland, an interpretation of her Irish ancestry during the potato famine of 1845. Here, she dresses in attire from the day and situates herself in the landscape of her ancestors. This became a psychological experience for the artist, who felt the boundaries between past and personal history eroding.

Alongside the photographs, the gallery will be exhibiting the artist’s intimate 8mm film, made on location in New York and Mississippi. The photographs come to life here, as the viewer recognizes Mourning’s characters moving about perfectly manicured rooms and landscapes. She complements the moving images with a soundtrack of taped conversations with her grandmother. The resulting effect is strange, haunting and timeless.