February 13, 2025
Ellen Picken
Waves Take Shape
Lowell Ryan Projects
January 18 - February 15, 2025
Ellen Picken
At first glance, Ellen Picken's paintings are formal studies of shapes and colors with a 1950s modernist palette. In addition to oil on clayboard, Picken adds natural materials such as ash, pine resin and iron oxide to create her lush compositions. The geometric patterns also have a spiritual feel. In numerous pieces, she places objects on the surface to create a three-dimensional veil through which the paintings formal symmetry can be seen. Additional layering is created with site specific murals-- undulating black stripes and curves painted directly on the gallery walls behind the framed works.
Picken's seductive and breathtaking paintings are intimate and carefully composed. In Johanna's cities come and gone (all works 2024), a geometric shape that resembles a modified celtic cross fills the canvas. It is formed by horizontal striations that transition from deep reds and browns at the top to lighter grays and greens at the bottom. This shape is set against a brushy black ground. In the lower right, Picken paints dark orange flames, an image of fire that carries an emotional resonance in Los Angeles now. Thirteen points for Catherine is a more celestial painting. Here, golden ovals circle around an orange starburst shape similarly set against a black background. The hovering shapes emanate from two golden arches filled with concentric circles that rise slightly off the painted surface.
Inside the Mountain and I'm in the other room are paintings with sculptural elements. Wooden slats cover the bottom portion of Inside the Mountain like saloon doors through which Picken paints concentric circles in various hues of orange, tan and brown that allude to an abstract rendition of a target or circles around a sun. For I'm in the other room, Picken covers the front of the painting with door beads that overlay a twisted abstraction in brown and white resembling a coiled snake or garden hose.
Picken's compositions and palette call to mind paintings by noted older female artists including Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton, Paulina Peavy and Luchita Hurtado, as well the recent works of Los Angeles based Roy Dowell. Like these artists, Picken is interested in where the spiritual and the geometric intersect. She juxtaposes organic and geometric forms and patterns in earthy colors alluding to symbolism, transcendence and perhaps the occult without being overtly preachy. While the paintings on their own hold the wall and the viewer's attention, Picken excels through the combination of painted wall and painted canvas. Here, the different styles and paint applications compete with each other and vie for attention. Picken inverts the less is more axiom suggesting that more (site specific wall paintings) creates context and provides a container through which to perceive the works.
Picken's pieces have an unsettling logic. They toy with symmetry and then throw that precision off base. They undulate, pulsate and allude to observed spaces and objects, yet they are completely imagined. Through the combination of pure geometry, scientific observation and religious symbolism, Picken has created masterful paintings that resonate on multiple levels.
Waves Take Shape
Lowell Ryan Projects
January 18 - February 15, 2025
Ellen Picken
At first glance, Ellen Picken's paintings are formal studies of shapes and colors with a 1950s modernist palette. In addition to oil on clayboard, Picken adds natural materials such as ash, pine resin and iron oxide to create her lush compositions. The geometric patterns also have a spiritual feel. In numerous pieces, she places objects on the surface to create a three-dimensional veil through which the paintings formal symmetry can be seen. Additional layering is created with site specific murals-- undulating black stripes and curves painted directly on the gallery walls behind the framed works.
Picken's seductive and breathtaking paintings are intimate and carefully composed. In Johanna's cities come and gone (all works 2024), a geometric shape that resembles a modified celtic cross fills the canvas. It is formed by horizontal striations that transition from deep reds and browns at the top to lighter grays and greens at the bottom. This shape is set against a brushy black ground. In the lower right, Picken paints dark orange flames, an image of fire that carries an emotional resonance in Los Angeles now. Thirteen points for Catherine is a more celestial painting. Here, golden ovals circle around an orange starburst shape similarly set against a black background. The hovering shapes emanate from two golden arches filled with concentric circles that rise slightly off the painted surface.
Inside the Mountain and I'm in the other room are paintings with sculptural elements. Wooden slats cover the bottom portion of Inside the Mountain like saloon doors through which Picken paints concentric circles in various hues of orange, tan and brown that allude to an abstract rendition of a target or circles around a sun. For I'm in the other room, Picken covers the front of the painting with door beads that overlay a twisted abstraction in brown and white resembling a coiled snake or garden hose.
Picken's compositions and palette call to mind paintings by noted older female artists including Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton, Paulina Peavy and Luchita Hurtado, as well the recent works of Los Angeles based Roy Dowell. Like these artists, Picken is interested in where the spiritual and the geometric intersect. She juxtaposes organic and geometric forms and patterns in earthy colors alluding to symbolism, transcendence and perhaps the occult without being overtly preachy. While the paintings on their own hold the wall and the viewer's attention, Picken excels through the combination of painted wall and painted canvas. Here, the different styles and paint applications compete with each other and vie for attention. Picken inverts the less is more axiom suggesting that more (site specific wall paintings) creates context and provides a container through which to perceive the works.
Picken's pieces have an unsettling logic. They toy with symmetry and then throw that precision off base. They undulate, pulsate and allude to observed spaces and objects, yet they are completely imagined. Through the combination of pure geometry, scientific observation and religious symbolism, Picken has created masterful paintings that resonate on multiple levels.