L.C. Armstrong “Signals at Sunset”

Marlborough (Midtown)

This event has ended.

Marlborough Gallery presents Signals at Sunset, an exhibition of new work by L.C. Armstrong. Comprised of twelve paintings and two works in neon Signals at Sunset continues Armstrong’s explorations of the surreal and the hyperreal. Expanding upon the language of Magic Realism these flowerscapes, a term coined by writer Luanne McKinnon, depict bright, intensely detailed flowers over maximalist landscapes both real and imagined.

Armstrong’s practice of layering acrylic on linen panels imparts a luminosity and a pearly, otherworldly glow to her works. Radiance often comes from an imposing sun and the flowers that populate the paintings loom larger than life and are often improbably bright. Equally as surreal, and at home in any climate, are Armstrong’s peacocks, flamingos and hummingbirds that populate her paintings. A canvas by Armstrong might be 20 x 16 inches or stretch to twelve feet long, and each is epic in the story it tells. Stylized portraits of friends, family and figures from history are poignantly presented and are often rife with symbolic importance.

Armstrong’s colorful depictions of magical worlds are fetching and anything but frivolous. A painter of light, here she is presenting for the first time two sculptures that extend upon her signature oversized flower motifs. Four foot tall floral forms cut in white powder coated aluminum and lit from behind with neon radiate fertility and color. As E. Luanne McKinnon writes in her catalogue essay, “Effulgent blooms divide the compositions in two ways: their hierarchical prominence insists upon our contact with them first, which is not without symbolic power; and, the deeper space behind them is otherwise a pictorial stage.” McKinnon recognizes the legacy of Luminist painting present in Armstrong’s work and goes on to say that the work “calls for reconciliation and regeneration through our care of this world, recognizing the fragile nature of its eternal return in dystopian times.”
Born in Humboldt, Tennessee, Armstrong completed two degrees from Pasadena’s Art College Center of Design and San Francisco’s Art Institute, while customizing vans, motorcycles, airplanes and hot rod cars, perfecting her technique and supporting herself through school. In 1991, Armstrong was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and in that same year her work was included in The Corcoran Biennial. After her first solo show in Cologne, Germany in 1991, Armstrong exhibited at White Columns in 1992 and over the next fifteen years with galleries in New York, Washington, Frankfurt and Paris.

Armstrong’s work has been included in many significant permanent collections such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Harvard University, Cambridge; The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, among others.