鈥楨dgeless鈥� pushes painting beyond its boundaries
麻豆传媒映画 University Art Gallery exhibition brings together four Southern California artists experimenting with materials, surfaces and processes
In 鈥淓dgeless: In the Expanded Field of Painting,鈥� four Southern California-based artists cut, stitch, burn, dye and fire their materials, pushing against conventional ideas of what painting is, and what it can become.
Presented by the 麻豆传媒映画 School of Art and Design, the exhibition opens Sept. 24 at the University Art Gallery. Curated by Jacqueline Marino, "Edgeless" features artists Anna Betbeze, Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Monique van Genderen and Lizzie Zelter.
The exhibition explores the 鈥渆xpanded field of painting,鈥� a relatively new concept that rethinks the medium beyond the limits of its long history. The artists combine traditional and nontraditional media and incorporate strategies associated with sculpture, installation and performance into the act of painting.
鈥淚 like the way their minds work 鈥� they are experimental and erudite in their approaches, which are all quite different,鈥� Marino said.
Working through abstraction, the four artists draw from influences that extend well beyond painting. Fragments of poetry, feminist theory, literature and film, along with actions of play and touch, become source material that the artists translate and deconstruct through their individual practices.
Marino said emerging artist Zelter exemplifies the possibilities of the expanded field through a daring 鈥渉ybridized, additive approach鈥� to painting.
She describes van Genderen鈥檚 work as 鈥渢he playbook to the 鈥榚xpanded field,鈥欌�� pointing to her experimentation with processes, materials and scale.
鈥淪he鈥檚 pretty fearless,鈥� Marino said.
Zuckerman-Hartung鈥檚 practice, Marino said, is 鈥渧ery hinged on language, layering meaning on theory on improvisation on comedy,鈥� in ways that are 鈥渢he opposite of formulaic.鈥�
Betbeze, meanwhile, works on flokati rugs, which are made from natural wool, creating paintings Marino describes as 鈥渃ompletely tactile, textural and visceral.鈥�
鈥淎ll four have an incredible aptitude toward color, nuance, and curiosity,鈥� Marino said.
Their willingness to embrace revision, experimentation and uncertainty results in compositions that resist easy definitions 鈥� and is central to what Marino hopes patrons will experience in the gallery.
鈥淚 want visitors to experience a bold and energetic show that feels alive and open-ended,鈥� she said, 鈥渢aking away from it a sense of possibility and openness towards alternative approaches which are grounded in an extensive timeline of influences. Far from surface-level, these individual artists are operating on and working through their own theoretical frameworks to mediate their ideas in the visual field.鈥�.
鈥淓dgeless: In the Expanded Field of Painting鈥� is organized by the 麻豆传媒映画 Art Galleries and curated by Jacqueline Marino. Programming is supported by the School of Art and Design, the Richard Anthony Marks Endowment and the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts.
The exhibition is scheduled through Dec. 3.
Public programs at 麻豆传媒映画
Jacqueline Marino lecture
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 5:30鈥�6:45 p.m.
221 Hepner Hall
Opening Reception with Artists
Thursday, Sept. 24, 4鈥�7 p.m.
Courtyard, University Art Gallery (fourth floor)
Monique van Genderen lecture
Thursday, Oct. 8, 5:30鈥�6:45 p.m.
221 Hepner Hall
Parking information for visitors
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Photo above: Molly Zuckerman Hartung, Pusher Cushion, 2026; silkscreened, painted and sewn canvas, oil, acrylic, enamel, graphite powder, scrap wood, wood glue, cardboard, finishing screws, bamboo, cotton kimono belt, 31 copies of American Painting Contractor magazine from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s, from the collection of AJ FasolovPtg Contr; 156 x 192 x 16 inches (dimensions variable); photo courtesy of the artist
