In 1953, Don Bachardy met the renowned British literary figure, Christopher Isherwood, on the beach in Santa Monica, and they remained a devoted couple until the author’s death in 1986. Their home in Santa Monica Canyon became a salon for the local art world as well as a mecca for artists, writers, and musicians visiting from abroad. Since then, Bachardy has become one of the most celebrated portrait artists of our time, always working from life, never from photographs. His illustrious subjects include, Aldous Huxley, Dorothy Parker, Igor Stravinsky, Joan Didion, Ed Ruscha, Jack Nicholson, Allen Ginsberg, Katherine Hepburn, Elton John, and Francis Bacon. The list is endless but, as Bachardy notes, “when a scheduled sitter has cancelled a sitting at the last moment…if I have a strong urge to work and can find no one ready to sit at short notice, I sometimes set up a mirror and paint myself.” Perhaps because they are free of a sitter’s expectations, Bachardy’s self-portraits manifest an extraordinary range of artistic exploration. This exhibition will include 15 self-portraits made within the past three years, all vastly different, but all sharing Bachardy’s penetrating eyes.

A memoirist creates narratives from the nexus of life’s reflections; revelations and turning points transform into diaries of experience, nostalgic photographs, love letters, and paintings. Artist, writer, and musician, Carol Es uses a wide spectrum of media to express personal, yet universal, stories of existential depth with humor and wit. In her new solo exhibition, Memoir, she presents a collection of oil and mixed media paintings, small gouaches on San Fernando Valley area maps, and drawings from The Journal Project—her ongoing diary made by hand-cutting garment patterns of manila paper and spontaneously marking them using only the tools of the manufacturing trade. Additionally, Craig Krull Gallery will host the launch of Es’s first major bookwork of nonfiction, Shrapnel in the San Fernando Valley. She will be reading an excerpt from this memoir, offering a short Q&A, and signing paperbacks, hardcovers, and special editions of the book, just prior to the exhibition reception.

Sculptor, Gwynn Murrill states that her “primary point of departure when beginning a new piece is the memory of a form that caught my attention.” She is recognized for her animal forms, cats, coyotes, and birds, which are reductively composed in sleek, streamlined shapes that she describes as “simultaneously abstract and figurative.” The current exhibition of small human figures represents a departure in both subject and style. With a more hand-built quality, made of plaster and epoxy, these intertwined human forms resemble clusters of Pompeii bodies that were buried in ash. The sculptures with just two figures, which Murrill calls “The Wrasslers”, were inspired by erotic Japanese Shunga prints. Some of these figures ended up being stacked on top of each other, thus forming another series, “Pyramids.” Several of the plaster pieces were later translated into bronze. In all her sculptural work, Murrill emphasizes the relationship between positive form and negative space.

On view in the gallery office:
Roberta Neiman

In the gallery office, we will feature a selection of Roberta Neiman's photographs, which are included in her new book, Magnetic North: Summers with Extraordinary People. There will be a Q&A with Neiman moderated by Dan McCleary, as well as a book signing, on April 13th at 3pm, prior to the reception.

“Photography is tied to specifying, and in Roberta Neiman’s book the images pay attention to the definition of a time and place in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, over four decades ago, where a group of writers, actors, filmmakers, performers, musicians and artists of every description came together, exchanged thoughts and explored ideas, separately and in collaboration.”
-Richard Serra, April 2017