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Opening Reception – First Pour: LOLA – SLATE Contemporary Gallery
November 3 @ 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Join us for the Opening Reception for ‘First Pour’, a solo exhibition featuring new works by Lola. There will be a gallery walkthrough with commentary beginning at 6:30pm.
“My work is a pattern of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. In the beginning I stand before a white panel, considering my first pour. This path leads to a constant discovery, a new evolution. Sometimes the layering is a spontaneous exercise while other times it is an experiment in composition. It is an intuitive process. The evidence is in the colors. It is the only way I know. And it is the only way to get to where I’m going.”
– Lola
ABOUT LOLA
Lola did not study art in school, but she sees this absence of classical training as an advantage to her creative process, as it allowed her to take an experimental approach that eventually led to a wholly unique way of creating art. Without being tied to traditional materials or techniques, she has been experimenting for more than two decades with poured resin as a way to create compositions that negotiate a space between total materiality and light. Like many other artists, Lola first used clear resin to add a glossy finish to her collages and paintings. Over time, the paintings disappeared, and the pigments (in this case dyes) entered the resin. The resin itself became the artwork, taking center stage, and holding the colors and forms in its own body.
Resin work is not for the faint of heart. It involves chemicals, catalytic reactions, masks, ventilators, and blow torches. It is best supported by a strong wooden panel, which means that, with each added layer, the work becomes heavier and harder to move. The medium itself is challenging. It changes from moment to moment as the liquid gradually transforms into a solid. As the resin thickens, it can be coaxed and manipulated; spread out, or held in. Timing is critical. To make hard-edged forms, each color has to be tended until the form is more or less stable. Then it needs to be left alone to set before the next color can be added. By the time an artwork is finished, one piece might have up to fifteen different “pours” built up over the course of days or weeks.
Lola works and lives in the Bay Area in California. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the States including the Bay Area, New Mexico, Washington DC, and Florida. Lola’s work is held in collections at Google, Stanford Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente and more. Her painting Miss McCall’s was selected for the de Young Open exhibition at the de Young Museum of Fine Art in San Francisco in 2020.
