NYAB Event - Erika Ranee “Gasoline Rainbows”

Erika Ranee “Gasoline Rainbows”

LMAKgallery

[Image: "Erika Ranee's Bayswater" (2016) Mixed Media on Canvas 48 x 36 in.]

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LMAKgallery presents Erika Ranee’s first solo show with the gallery, titled Gasoline Rainbows. The show will feature a new series of paintings and additionally her recent foray into works on paper. The combination allows for a scrupulous look into Ranee’s oeuvre; juxtaposing the more intimate, detailed renderings on paper with the more expressive and gestural paintings on canvas.

The title Gasoline Rainbows is based on a phrase coined by the author J.D. Salinger, an apt description of colorful oil puddles that materialize after a rain. As the title describes an ephemeral moment, Ranee has been able to embed the alchemy of light and color in layers of paint and shellac. The shellac symbolically references the preservational properties of amber, and similarly reveals the history of the work. Ranee offers an evolutionary view into her process as the layers reveal a wide selection of detritus collected over time: handwritten notes, text messages, snippets from conversations overheard on the train-or the myriad markings painted on sidewalks and streets by the employees of public works departments to make note of the subterranean infrastructure when planning road construction projects. Reflecting on the fleeting instance where nature and city grit collide allows Ranee to explore the complexity of building an image. There is the push and pull to the act of painting that anticipates the desired reveal: a dance between control and chance.

Erika Ranee received her MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Painting and has attended the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) seminar program at the Bronx Museum, as well as the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She was a 2009 Artist-in-Residence at the Abrons Arts Center, and was awarded a studio grant from The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in 2011. Her work has been shown in several exhibitions including The Bronx Museum, The Last Brucennial/2014, The Parlour Bushwick and recently at BravinLee programs.