"In practice we call abstract all works of art which, though they may start from the artist's awareness of an object in the external world, proceed to make a self-consistent and independent aesthetic unity in no sense relying on an objective equivalence." -Herbert Read, Art Now From this point abstraction has traveled far and wide, developing into many movements and isms (Expressionism, Cubism, Concretism and Minimalism to name a few) but two or three basic tendencies are characteristic. At the risk of over simplification: 1) Works which are by definition and limitation, structural, architectonic, geometrical, rectilinear and associated with the intellect...Malevich and Mondrian were early proponents of this direction in abstraction. 2) Works which are organic rather than geometric in form, curvilinear rather than rectilinear and associated with the emotional and intuitive...Kandinsky and Klee are prime candidates for this direction. 3) Simply the reduction of natural appearances to radically simplified form...Brancussi and Arp. These primary definitions served as springboards, leading to contemporary explorations of gesture, color and the delicate balance between chaos and order. El Camino College Art Gallery is pleased to present the works of thirteen abstract painters who hail from Canada, England, Korea, the United States and Vietnam. Their works are well-informed, intelligent and wildly divergent expressions of abstraction. The exhibition, entitled 'In The Abstract', represents deep exploration of the many facets of abstraction from the exquisite Minimalist compositions of William Lane to the lush ecological (or biological) landscapes of Vi Ly. The following artists are represented in the exhibition: John Caputo, John de Heras, Roberta Eisenberg, Tom Krumpak, William Lane, Vi Ly, Jeffrey O'Connell, Margit Omar, Ann Page, Jeehee Paik, Bill Porteous, Don Spicer and Peter Sims. A strong sense of compositional substructure informs the painting overall while each artist has developed a very individual language reflecting his/her personal concerns. The focus of attention may be spiritual, political, relationship, geographic location, internal drama or pure delight in color. Whatever the issue, all thirteen painters are articulate in their use of visual vocabulary, offering genuine contribution to the development of an imaginative and open-ended visual language. -SUSANNA MEIERS Curator El Camino College Art Gallery

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We regret that images of the artwork from this exhibition are not available at this time.

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