Arts, Etc.Fine Art

Tall talent showcased in ACB show

The Arts and Communications Building is using the art gallery called the Tall Wall Space to display an exhibition entitled "Paintings" by Joy Bertinuson, a graduate student at Claremont Graduate School. Dion Johnson, art studio manager, says that this installation is the type of work the department would like to have for the Tall Wall Space, that clocks in at 23 and a half feet tall. The four canvas paintings are the first to adorn the wall and will be up until Jan. 31, 2002. / photo by Jennifer Contreras
The Arts and Communications Building is using the art gallery called the Tall Wall Space to display an exhibition entitled “Paintings” by Joy Bertinuson, a graduate student at Claremont Graduate School. Dion Johnson, art studio manager, says that this installation is the type of work the department would like to have for the Tall Wall Space, that clocks in at 23 and a half feet tall. The four canvas paintings are the first to adorn the wall and will be up until Jan. 31, 2002. / photo by Jennifer Contreras

by Anna Roy
Assistant Features Editor

The first exhibit, “Paintings” to ever be featured at the Tall Wall Space in the Arts and Communications Building opened Thursday, with work by artist Joy Bertinuson.

The “Tall Wall Space”, which takes up two floors, is visible upon entering the building.

“The space is devoted to more younger and emerging artists; persons in graduate school and who recently graduated,” said Dion Johnson, the art studio manager. “Its unique in the way that the art we have here engages the space, as opposed to being enclosed in a gallery.”

Johnson and other members of the department began looking for artists, and came across Bertinuson’s at a studio in the Claremont Graduate School.

The four paintings by Bertinuson vary in color, with each having one main plane of color. The three larger paintings are yellow, brown and pink. The smallest is baby blue. The colors contrast with one another, sometimes-dull colors are depicted against brighter colors.

All of the paintings are similar in style to one another. They all contain visual abstractions with fragments of imagery.

However, each painting is also distinct. Each painting portrays different color blobs, unusual shapes, marks, lines and figures. Some of the shapes can be described as representing a symbol, but it is unclear if the artist is purposefully portraying these symbols.

“I think that they are very mental pieces, very deep rather than just representational of a physical reality or an everyday reality. We can’t really grasp what some of the imagery represents,” said La Verne resident Nick Brandt.

Bertinuson also experiments with size, painting large dominant shapes in the foreground, and then small, tiny, detailed marks in a certain area.

In “Big Brown” there is a tiny television. Other lumps in the painting look like mountains, and in “Camoflauge” Bertinuson has painted clouds and a smoke stack. The neon colors seem nuclear in appearance.

From a distance, the paintings look “pretty, with their pastel, candy-like colors, but when one looks closely at them, they look gross and unappealing because of the way that the paint is applied, with splatters and drips,” said Brandt.

The painting “Flirting” also has drips of dark pastel green on it making it seem like the images are being contaminated by waste and tiny red marks that resemble figures.

The larger paintings are 7 foot square making it easy to dive into them with your eyes. It’s difficult to tell if the marks on the painting are behind or in front of each other.

“The paintings do get your mind thinking in a certain direction,” said Brandt. “With the beautiful waste and the little television.”

An artist talk with Bertinuson will be held from noon to 1 p.m., Jan. 8 in the Arts and Communications Building and is open to the public.

For more information on the exhibitions, receptions and artists lectures contact Dion Johnson at (909) 593-3511 or email at johnsond@ulv.edu.

Anna Roy, Assistant Features Editor
Anna Roy
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