February Newsletter

EXHIBITIONS

February 18 - March 14
Reception: Saturday, February 22, 6-9 PM
Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, March 7, 3 PM

DANCERS

Michael Becker

TAG Gallery is proud to debut Michael Becker’s DANCERS – a photographic survey of male and female dancers in movement. “Capturing a rehearsal of the renowned dance troupe Diavolo was an experience of energy interacting with architecture.” Becker said about the exhibition.

“Having access to this amazingly talented group of young people gave me inspiration to make a body of work about humans and the way we interact with architecture and each other.” He added. The photography seems to jump off the walls to the viewer with colorful excitement and at the same time has a serene effect of seeing movement frozen in time. Some of what is captured is crystal clear and others are blurry as the split second of the lens can’t keep up with the outpouring of energy the dancers convey.

Its intention is diverse and displays interactions between the participants showing movement and flight. The work is very chic and has a way of saying to the viewer that the human form and architecture are made for each other.

Michael Becker is self-taught and has had many exhibitions in galleries and has his work permanently displayed in the West Hollywood Library and nonprofit agencies in Los Angeles. His work is in the collection of the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City.

ART + VIDEO

TAG Gallery Group Exhibition

Los Angeles is known as the world’s contemporary Creative Capital. One of every six people in our home city is employed in some sort of artistic field. TAG is celebrating Los Angeles with Art+Video. Selected and member artists will display video art alongside physical art objects in our beautiful and popular South Gallery. 

Video art emerged in the 1960’s with the growing development of film technologies. Today, fine artists regularly employ video media in a variety of ways. Art+Video invites viewers to make connections between contemporary objects and the screen. Artists include Karen Hochman Brown, Mathilda LaZalle Moore, Katie Brightside, Jody Zellen, Molly Schulman, SKÜT, Robert Fitzgerald, Hannah Beadman, Kayla Cloonan, and Miss Art World.

Postmodern Reactions

TAG Artist Member Show

TAG Members present Postmodern Reactions in the upcoming member artists group show. The exhibition will run from February 18 - March 14 with a reception on Saturday, February 22, from 6-9 PM. 

Postmodernism appeared in the late 20th century as a reaction to traditional and Modern art and critical practice. The movement was characterized by a distrust of grand theories and ideas, oftentimes rejecting established notions of “art.” In Postmodern Reactions, TAG members respond to the movement in their own unique and diverse ways. The artist showcase will appear in our East and West Galleries.

TAG Gallery Admissions

For more than 25 years, TAG Gallery has helped artists take charge of their creative careers. TAG Gallery serves 40 artists each year, providing many creative opportunities for all artist members. Our artist-driven organization connects artists with each other, the local community, and our network of thousands of art collectors, patrons, and local artists.

Questions? Please contact Ryan at president.taggallery@gmail.com.

Member benefits include:
· A solo exhibition once per year.
· Group exhibitions.
· Curatorial opportunities.
· 75% artist commissions.
· Non-exclusive representation.
· A supportive community of artists.

Membership responsibilities include:
· $3500 annual membership fees
(paid in a $500 deposit and two $1500 payments on the first of January and July).
· Monthly gallery business meetings.
· Participation in one of our community committees.

Admissions Process:
· Applications for 2020 are now open. Selected artists will be invited for interviews the week of February 3 and finalists will be juried by TAG members in February. Final selection for 2020 membership will be announced by March 1, 2020.

Apply To Be A TAG Member Here


Blackstract + Heritage Opening

BLACKSTRACT

Blackstract Press Release

Blackstract Installation Images

TAG Gallery is proud to present Blackstract, an exhibition curated by gallery manager Rakeem Cunningham. The exhibition features the work of Deitra Charles, Patrice Fisher, Andrew Gray, Hasef, David Leggett, Haleigh Nickerson, & Brittney Leeanne Williams. The exhibition will run from January 21 – February 15, with a reception on January 25 from 5-8 PM.

The accomplishments and achievements of black abstract artists are rarely celebrated and are often omitted from mainstream historical conversations that shape our view of the contemporary art canon and landscape. Keeping this in mind, the exhibition aims to combat the false equivalency that work by African American artists must be politically charged. This exhibit explores abstraction, installation, line, color, material, texture, and form as interpreted through the lens of seven different artists with distinct styles and practices. 

The goal of Blackstract is to present black artists as fully realized human beings, not just oppressed bodies whose pain is on the display for the entertainment of the viewer.

HERITAGE

Heritage Press Release

Heritage Installation Images

TAG is delighted to present Heritage, and all-member showcase reflecting our artists’ personal, cultural, historic, and artistic beginnings. The exhibition will run from January 21 – February 15, with a reception on January 25 from 5-8 PM.

Heritage is an opportunity for our TAG artists to share who they are with the community,” says gallery president K Ryan Henisey. “We come from a variety of backgrounds and our artists are honored to put into form the ephemeral ideas and qualities that shape who they are today.”

Works within the multi-artist showcase vary in style and technique, echoing the disparate pasts of our members. Subjects within the show reflect on Jewish and Persian history, LGBTQ mythology, California place-making, and more, resulting in a creatively quilted exhibition that echoes the multiplicity of Los Angeles. 

Founded in 1993, TAG is an artist-operated gallery cooperative that provides creative freedom and encourages the exploration of new media, techniques, and subject matter. Member artists are selected by their peers.


Artillery: "LA Open" at TAG

Genie Davis / Artillery

2020 VISION: "Art + Activism" at SoLA; "LA Open" at TAG; Kathleen Henderson at Track 16; "Intersections" at Durden and Ray

…The gallery was also full of attendees and great art at mid-city’s TAG, where the LA Open show brought an equally wide number of artists and interesting works into both exhibition and competition. Waiting to hear the prize winners announced, participating artists and art lovers noshed on a buffet of snacks and sipped wine as they took in – and posed by – a dazzling range of art.…

READ MORE

November / December Newsletter

November 19 - December 14
Reception: Saturday, November 23, 6-9 PM | Artist Performances: 8 PM
Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, December 7, 3 PM
Closing Performance: Saturday, November, 23, 2pm

K Ryan Henisey

installations

TAG Gallery is proud to present installations, an interactive and multi-layered collage experience by K. Ryan Henisey. installations invites viewers to become participants, embedding a piece of themselves in the art. Paper hearts and the artist’s familiar use of mixed patterns are central to interactive displays, perfect for photographs, selfies and boomerangs.  

“With installations, I want you to make the final object of art,” says Henisey. “Using collage as my medium, I’ve created backdrops and paper sets that invite you in. The exhibition is deeply queer, selfie-centric, and there’s a lot of me in it—bits of my 80s-era childhood, favorite song lyrics, and my body.”

Henisey is fascinated with the intersection of social media and creative presence. His use of paper hearts plays foil to the human side of social “likes,” reminding that behind the object (and internet) is a living, emotional being. “We are complex people, full of complex relationships—both online and off,” he explains, “the art in installations reflects that.”Henisey has displayed at galleries and institutions throughout California, the Museu de la Garrotxa, Spain, and will debut in China at the Guangzhou Art Fair in February 2020. He currently serves as president of TAG Gallery in Los Angeles.

Concurrent with installations, Henisey presents My Youth, an exhibition of queer artists. Co-curated with artist Eugene Huffman, the show focuses on growing up queer. Both exhibitions are on display at TAG Galley from November 19 - December 14, 2019. An artist’s reception is open to the public, Saturday, November 23, 6-9pm.

Danny Janotta

Paradise

TAG Gallery is pleased to present Paradise, a presentation of personal oil paintings by artist Danny Janotta. The exhibition runs from November 19 – December 14 with a reception on Saturday, November 23 from 6 – 9 PM.

The canvases of Janotta’s Paradise often display lush landscapes from the artists’ travels that evoke a sense of calm and relaxation upon viewing, transporting the viewer to each destination as they stroll the gallery. Particular care was given to lighting and ambiance of each piece with Janotta focusing in on the effect of sunlight on each canvas, creating a sense paradise and depth among the flat surface.

Coming from a background that included uncles who were in the building trade, Danny pursued a career as an architect and received his Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1978 & 1980. His paintings capture the light and emotional feeling of Southern California, with color, restrained detail, architectural composition, and perspective. His work has been featured select publications has taught design classes at UCLA and USC. Janotta is a member of the American Institute of Architects and is a prominent designer of major hi-rise buildings, wineries, and residential towers in the USA and Asia.

Damon Reinagle

Endangered

TAG Gallery is pleased to present Endangered, a body of work by Damon Reinagle. This newest body of work consists of depictions of endangered wild life entangled in vibrant, and often-gradated backdrops. The exhibition runs from November 19 – December 14 with a reception on Saturday, November 23 from 6 – 9 PM.

As deforestation, poaching practices, and the illegal fishing and bleaching of the ocean’s reef continues, so do the suffering of the flora and fauna of the area. Reinagle soon fears that many species will soon dissolve away and become extinct. As such, this body of works serves as a way to preserve each species in his own way, utilizing pattern and color as the habitat for each of his subjects to occupy. 

Each piece begins with multiple pigments being dumped onto blank canvas. The colors are then spread around, dragged and manipulated.  By brushing, dragging, and spraying the paint layers he creates a flowing, patterned background upon which his animals can subtly merge into.

Reinagle asks his viewers to reflect on our impact on the plight of both the animal kingdom and ultimately how we as humanity view ourselves in relation to the species that co-inhabit the planet with us.

My Youth LGBT Art Exhibition Curatorial

LGBT Queer Art Exhibition curated by K. Ryan Henisey & Eugene Huffman

My Youth Press Release | My Youth View the Works

November 19 - December 14

Reception: Saturday, November 23, 6-9 pm

Panel Discussion: Saturday, December 7, 4 pm

Curators K Ryan Henisey and Eugene Huffman present a multi-artist showcase with My Youth. The exhibition, open to artists who identify as LGBTQIA, focuses on growing up queer.  “One of the goals of this show was to amplify Queer artists and expression” says Henisey. Our focus on each person’s experience allows us to highlight a variety of stories and voices. And what we found is a beautiful, oftentimes haunted but equally triumphant, expression of each artist’s youth.” 

Paintings, photographs, mixed media assemblage, and more come together in My Youth. The collection expands upon Queer themes of hybridity and fragmentation. The result is full of passion, revealing hardships and victories universal to all. When you create art, you are storytelling,” Huffman expounded. “It’s the same with curating. Having the chance to review a broad body of Queer work is rewarding enough. But in My Youth, we’ve woven a visual tapestry, carrying threads of dissonance throughout.”

Participating artists include: Franco Apodaca, Jacob Anderson-Minshall, Gwyneth Bulawsky, Enrique Castrejon, Kayla Cloonan, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Candice Dalsing, Veronica Dimitrov, Floyd Frazier, Mary Margaret Groves, Brian Harwick, Chuck Hohng, Jason Jenn, David Jester, Peter Kalisch, Joe Klaus, Cornelia Kurtew, Tom Lasley, SKÜT (Scott Lewallen), Patrick Mizumoto, Nelson Munares, Andrew Norris, Derek Pentz, Katie Pinkston, David Puck, Claire Pupo, Vojislav Radovanovic, Steven Rahbany, Brandon Rizzuto, Amy Smith, John Waiblinger. 

K Ryan Henisey is a member artist and currently serves as president at TAG Gallery. His solo show, installations, is concurrent with My Youth. His work has shown in institutions and galleries across the Golden State, at the Museu de la Garrotxa, Spain, and will debut in China for the Guangzhou Art Fair in February 2020.

Eugene Huffman is a Los Angeles-based, out HIV Positive artist. He served as a celebrity artist and art director for the Art Hearts Fashion Gallery for LA Fashion Week. Eugene was one of HIV Plus Magazine’s “Most Amazing HIV-Positive People of 2016” and his work often benefits LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations. 

For Inquiries:
gallery@taggallery.net