LOS ANGELES – At a time of turmoil in the world – inflation, political divisions, military conflicts abroad – Jennifer Guidi’s artwork at first glance seems utopian, Pollyannaish, simply beautiful.
And Guidi isn’t afraid to draw inspiration from the sun, moon, flowers, birds, and rainbows. Nor does she apologize for liking the color pink.
But while easy on the eyes, her paintings and sculptures – which will premiere Saturday at the David Kordansky Gallery here – belie the depth and complexity that curators are increasingly recognizing. “It’s more than what it originally appeared to be,” said Heidi Zuckerman, director of the Orange County Museum, who is hosting a Guidi show next fall. “Part of that is the complexity of the paint underneath and what she hides beneath the surface. I think it’s an interesting metaphor for women and who we are at the core of who we are. “
The pleasant quality of Guidi’s work also masks an aspect – her struggle to be respected as a female artist in a still male-dominated field; let her paintings be seen as content rather than decoration; and to establish professional identity independent of ex-husband, higher profile (and higher paid) artist Mark Grotjahn.
Guidi said in a recent interview at her studio: “Women are often identified by who they’ve been with. “I don’t want to be locked up.”
Over the past few years, Guidi, 50, has succeeded in her own right. In 2018 she was included in the large Gagosian gallery – also representing Grotjahn – and since 2016 she has been represented by Kordansky, where her current exhibition is, “In the heart of the sun“Occupies most of the gallery.
She recently played a Solo exhibition at Long Museum in China. And her upcoming show at the Orange County Museum, where open its new building last month, will mark her first institutional exhibition in the United States.
One of her paintings, “Elements of all entities, sold last fall at Christie’s for $625,000, more than four times the low estimate of $150,000 (her work sold privately for between $100,000 and about $500,000). . Among the major collectors who purchased her work were Steven A. Cohen and Maurice Marciano.
David Kordansky, the gallery’s owner, said: “She is in the space between the soul and the hallucination. “They are contemplating a lot about the surroundings and atmosphere of our West Coast regions – where the sky meets the sea.
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He continued: “A lot of artists have a concept of technology and fast images, while Guidi’s paintings” are almost like these poetic opportunities in which you slow down and get lost in real pleasures. the fact of seeing. “
The acceleration in the artist’s career coincided with the growth of Guidi’s spiritual practice and her transition from figurative to abstract painting. Inspired by the stitching on the backs of Moroccan rugs and the mandala of Tibetan monks – where the patterns radiate from a central point – Guidi about a decade ago began mixing sand with paint.
She is also involved in color exploration (recently transitioning to fluorescent pinks, blues, and yellows) and researching chakra techniques that connect with the body’s energy centers.
“I think of color as a way to connect – a way to interact – inviting people into a sense of liveliness,” says Guidi. “More colors. Add dots. More energy. More brilliant. More vibrating”.
She meditates every morning and collects crystals, the influences of which give her paintings an enchanting peacefulness that has attracted the attention of collectors and curators. Several major institutions have acquired Guidi’s work, including the Hammer Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
“She’s such a big part of LA art,” says collector Susan Gersh, who bought Guidi’s “Pink Sky Mountain” with her husband David. in 2017. “It looks very ethereal, very romantic. At different times of the day, the color will change”.
This week’s opening performance was Guidi’s first time showing off a large sculpture – enlarged rocks and crystals to which she added sand mandala, cast in bronze and colored with paint. car.
Wearing paint-stained clogs and taking a sip of water from a glass jar, Guidi seemed calm and careful at first. It’s always been her nature. “I grew up extremely shy – it takes me a while to get to know someone,” she says. “I think a lot of artists are introverts.”
Born in Redondo Beach, California, in 1972, Guidi always knew he wanted to be an artist. Her father, who ran country clubs, sang and danced a bit on stage. Her mother, who works in retail, loves to dance.
She took art classes in high school and went on to receive a master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. To earn money during college and graduate school, Guidi painted sets in theater and indoor fake works.
Having studied traditional drawing and painting, Guidi started out as a representative painter, but eventually realized that wasn’t quite the right fit. “I focus on making things as realistic as possible,” she says. “But I never felt like it was my voice. I’m recording what I see, but I don’t feel like I’m translating it into something completely mine.”
In his early 30s, Guidi gave two solo shows of his representative paintings at the ACME gallery in Los Angeles. But her career stalled after that; ACME never committed and no other galleries expressed interest.
“It was extremely frustrating,” Guidi said. “I continued to paint alone, but to be honest, I gave up on painting.”
To some extent, there was freedom in this, something that allowed her to explore the abstract. “I closed my studio door and didn’t let anyone in – no more noise, no more outside voices,” she said. “Finally, I found my own voice. And I know that. Then I started inviting people to join and they actually got the job. They responded to what I was trying to do and felt a quiet, meditative presence.”
Guidi was at age 42 when she began exhibiting again, eventually attracting the attention of exhibitors Nathalie Karg, Massimo De Carlo, Kordansky, Almine Rech and Gagosian.
Guidi is one of six female artists from Los Angeles who participated in Afghan Carpet Project at Hammer in 2014, designing rugs that will then be hand-woven in Afghanistan. “Her rug was made of watercolor when we were there, a womens mesh whilemar was full length light blue,” said curator Ali Subotnick, who organized the project. said the project organization. “She quietly absorbed the world around her and distilled it into meditative and hypnotic images, often vivid images.”
On social media, Guidi has developed a loyal following, in part because she shares videos of her work in progress with her nearly 84,000 followers on Instagram, something Millicent has Wilner, a Gagosian executive, describes it as “generous”.
“That openness is deeply epochal,” says Wilner.
There will always be people who fire jobs with such broad appeal. In 2017, bookmaker Stefan Simchowitz was famous on Facebook for Guidi being the latest trendy trophy. “Can you get me a Jen Guidi, can you get me a Jen Guidi, can you get me a Jen Guidi?” he said in a follow Interview with ArtNewsmock collectors.
But Guidi continued to return to his studio with typical quiet determination. “When I drive home and see the sunset in the mountains, it’s hard not to stay with you,” Guidi said. “It’s about work and about enjoying the process, loving coming here every day and trying to turn everything else off.”
