January 2 – January 30, 2010
Steve Turner Contemporary is pleased to present There is a place…, an exhibition in its project room featuring new works by the Los Angeles based artist, Shizu Saldamando.
There is a place takes its title from a popular Morrissey song, There is a place in hell for me and my friends and it documents Shizu Saldamando’s friends, who are also artists. In her work, Saldamando translates her snapshot photographs into drawings and paintings that depict her friends in social situations that she observes in bars, dance clubs, backyard parties and art galleries. She simplifies, and in some cases, completely eliminates the background to decontextualize the specific setting. In so doing, she has created multi-layered portraits that are both spare and complex.
Shizu Saldamando was born in San Francisco in 1978 and grew up in its Mission district. She received her B. A. from UCLA’s School of Arts and Architecture, 2000 and her MFA from California Institute of the Arts, 2005. Her work was included in Phantom Sightings, the traveling exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008.
