Exhibit features portraits of female artists

Exhibit features portraits of female artists

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"Jennifer, 2016" is one of the paintings featured in the “Rebecca Campbell: You are Here” exhibit in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture.

Photo: Courtesy of Rebecca Campbell and L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Dec. 22, 2016) Portraits of female artists will be displayed at California Lutheran University from Jan. 20 through April 6.

“Rebecca Campbell: You are Here” will be on exhibit in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture on the Thousand Oaks campus. Campbell will demonstrate her portrait painting technique from 10 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on March 7.

Motivated by a lack of female representation in the art world, and in homage to the artists who inspire her, Campbell began her “You are Here” project featuring female artists working in Los Angeles in fall 2015. Fighting against misogyny, Campbell’s work celebrates women’s “strength, intelligence, courage, humor and beauty.” 

Campbell makes each painting with the same dimensions, using paper that she primes with a custom pink acrylic paint. She employs a limited palette of black, white and gray to build the portrait. Although she approaches each work with identical parameters, Campbell imbues each portrait with a unique sense of identity, capturing each artist’s likeness with bold and gestural brushstrokes. Each sitter meets the gaze of the viewer, with her strengths and vulnerabilities candidly conveyed. 

“I am not interested in making very realistic depictions. I do not sort people out by what they make; I just choose people who are serious, diligent, hardworking, and good at what they do,” Campbell said.

The works are also meant to be a celebration of painting itself, and the quality of imagery that can only be brought forth with paint and brush.

Campbell’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries across the United States including the Phoenix Art Museum and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as overseas in Spain and Switzerland. Her work has been featured in many publications including ARTnews, the Los Angeles Times and art ltd.

She is an assistant professor at California State University, Fullerton, and has also taught at the Art Center College of Design and the Idyllwild Arts Academy.

Admission is free. L.A. Louver Gallery in Venice, California, provided support for the exhibit and Cal Lutheran’s Artists and Speakers Committee is sponsoring the demonstration. 

The gallery is located in Soiland Humanities Center at 120 Memorial Parkway. It is open form 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

For more information, contact curator Rachel T. Schmid at 805-493-3697 or visit CalLutheran.edu/kwanfong.

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