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Livia Stein in Two Parts:
Livia Stein, Magic Power, 2021, oil on canvas, 72 x 60
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Part One: Glow of Opera
March 24 - April 23, 2022 Artist’s Reception Saturday, March 26th, 1-4 pm Featuring Recent Large Scale Paintings Glow of Opera is Part One of our two part exhibition of Livia Stein's work produced over the past two years of the Pandemic era. Featuring Stein's recent large scale paintings, Glow of Opera responds to the drama, pageantry and passion of Opera as a vehicle for joy and meaning in the face of pervasive uncertainty and vulnerability. Stein's paintings exude a fierce life force, archetypical characters and an expansive freedom with paint.
Scroll on down to read Livia Stein's statement and see more images from Glow of Opera. |
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Part Two:
During and After the Deluge April 28 - June 4, 2022 Artist’s Reception Saturday, April 30th, 1-4 pm Featuring Recent Mono-prints and mixed media works on paper |
During and After the Deluge, Part Two of Livia Stein in Two Parts, focuses primarily on monotypes and mixed media works on paper developed in the past two pandemic years during which Stein was sustained by the pageantry and beauty of the Opera through the Metropolitan Opera’s free online streaming encore performances. Operas from Nixon in China and Albert Herring to classics such as Madame Butterfly and Rigoletto inspire the work. Eight notebooks filled with opera drawings and mixed media sketches accompany the completed works, providing a glimpse of the artist’s process.
Glow of Opera paintings: Please contact the gallery with further inquiries regarding the large scale works seen below:
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Livia Stein:
“More and more I see that art making and viewing it, is about the transformative process. By this I mean the manner in which the artist’s brain makes necessary changes that engender surprises to his/her work during the time of making.
What I mean by “Glow of Opera?
At the beginning of the covid pandemic my partner and I began to watch the opera, streaming from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. This was no frivolous or light commitment. We were stranded at home with no certain outcome mapped for us. We watched a different opera every evening, month after month. To put it simply, most performances gave us a moment of hope during a very dark time. The selected opera accomplished this either during the actual performance or shortly thereafter during a
number of curtain bows and zealous applause.
By this stunning event taking place, the world could become perfect, if only for a few seconds. A transformation took place, often between people. The audience gave back appreciation and love while the singer gave everything of her talent and energy to make this “divine” moment exist.
It was this exchange which enabled me to draw while watching the opera, transform the drawings to small gouache paintings, then mixed media prints and finally paintings on a larger scale.
This process continues for me to this time. I began to paint with encaustic, wax pigment on board, and began layering the paintings with fabric. I can’t say if it was my family history with sewing and fabric, or effort to capture the opulence of the opera, which fostered this change. All I know is that I had the need to layer and obscure elements of the pieces until they “morphed” into somethings else just beyond my grasp, some acknowledgment of life’s mysteries and huge complexities, lusciousness, pathos and drama, something available that is rarely seen, but exists for all people who look.”
“More and more I see that art making and viewing it, is about the transformative process. By this I mean the manner in which the artist’s brain makes necessary changes that engender surprises to his/her work during the time of making.
What I mean by “Glow of Opera?
At the beginning of the covid pandemic my partner and I began to watch the opera, streaming from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. This was no frivolous or light commitment. We were stranded at home with no certain outcome mapped for us. We watched a different opera every evening, month after month. To put it simply, most performances gave us a moment of hope during a very dark time. The selected opera accomplished this either during the actual performance or shortly thereafter during a
number of curtain bows and zealous applause.
By this stunning event taking place, the world could become perfect, if only for a few seconds. A transformation took place, often between people. The audience gave back appreciation and love while the singer gave everything of her talent and energy to make this “divine” moment exist.
It was this exchange which enabled me to draw while watching the opera, transform the drawings to small gouache paintings, then mixed media prints and finally paintings on a larger scale.
This process continues for me to this time. I began to paint with encaustic, wax pigment on board, and began layering the paintings with fabric. I can’t say if it was my family history with sewing and fabric, or effort to capture the opulence of the opera, which fostered this change. All I know is that I had the need to layer and obscure elements of the pieces until they “morphed” into somethings else just beyond my grasp, some acknowledgment of life’s mysteries and huge complexities, lusciousness, pathos and drama, something available that is rarely seen, but exists for all people who look.”
Three River Nymphs, 2021, oil on canvas, 74 x 62
Magic Power, 2021, oil on canvas, 72 x 60
detail celebrating the nurses, Kathakali Meets Covid
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La Traviata, 2021, oil on canvas, 72 x 60
Rigoletto, 2020, oil on canvas, 60 x 48
Kathakali Meets Covid, 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 72
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Part 2
I didn't want the fantasy to end, the world was perfect in minutes and seconds.
The singers gave so much to us, a bow, a gesture of heart. I was smitten for those few inexpressible moments, in love with being alive.
Sometime over this period, going up to paint, ceased to feel fun. I was marooned, i wanted more pleasure. I began the fabric collages on painted boards, an extension of my love of pattern, texture, color, all together.a stunning realization that i had found a glittered path to joy. I felt those pangs of falling in love again.
I came from a family of excellent seamstresses. As a child i would open a double wide cupboard filled with bolts of glorious fabric and touch it fondly. My mother taught me to use patterns. I would make clothes rather than buying them. Working as a visual artist with fabric like paint layers, moving it around the board until it said, glue me. My new pathway was waiting for me.
I didn't want the fantasy to end, the world was perfect in minutes and seconds.
The singers gave so much to us, a bow, a gesture of heart. I was smitten for those few inexpressible moments, in love with being alive.
Sometime over this period, going up to paint, ceased to feel fun. I was marooned, i wanted more pleasure. I began the fabric collages on painted boards, an extension of my love of pattern, texture, color, all together.a stunning realization that i had found a glittered path to joy. I felt those pangs of falling in love again.
I came from a family of excellent seamstresses. As a child i would open a double wide cupboard filled with bolts of glorious fabric and touch it fondly. My mother taught me to use patterns. I would make clothes rather than buying them. Working as a visual artist with fabric like paint layers, moving it around the board until it said, glue me. My new pathway was waiting for me.
left, Albert Herring, and right, Attila, mixed media, 30 x 22
Rama with Flying Monkeys, 2020, oil on canvas, 60 x 72
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detail, Rama with Flying Monkeys
left, Fear Monsters and right, Nameless, monotypes, 30 x 22
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Siegfried and Hatchet, mixed media, 18 x 24 on paper 30 x 22
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More about Livia Stein
BIO
Livia Stein was born in Dallas, Texas, and then raised in and around Los Angeles and Orange County. She studied History at UC Berkeley and pursued a master’s degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She spent several months in India as a student and has continued to travel there during the past 20 years. Influenced to do photography by her father, a talented amateur photographer, she studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, though ultimately, she received her Master’s at San Francisco State University, Center for Interdisciplinary and Experimental Art, founded by Jock Reynolds, now the director of the Yale University Art Museum. Formerly a Professor of Art at Dominican University in San Rafael, Stein now lives in Oakland where she maintains a studio.
She received an NDEA Fellowship while studying Indian History and Art at the University of Pennsylvania. More recently she was an Artist in Residence in Baroda, India. In 2007 she had a Residency at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, which included a Solo Exhibition of her Paintings. She was again in India for a Painting Residency just outside New Delhi, winter 2012. And in November of 2015 she was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, and has since completed a Residency in Morocco.
Stein’s work has been exhibited in Europe, South America, India and throughout the United States ,and is in the collection of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Oakland Museum of California, Dominican University, and University of Iowa Art Museum, to name a few.
Steins exhibition record is extensive.
Livia Stein was born in Dallas, Texas, and then raised in and around Los Angeles and Orange County. She studied History at UC Berkeley and pursued a master’s degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She spent several months in India as a student and has continued to travel there during the past 20 years. Influenced to do photography by her father, a talented amateur photographer, she studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, though ultimately, she received her Master’s at San Francisco State University, Center for Interdisciplinary and Experimental Art, founded by Jock Reynolds, now the director of the Yale University Art Museum. Formerly a Professor of Art at Dominican University in San Rafael, Stein now lives in Oakland where she maintains a studio.
She received an NDEA Fellowship while studying Indian History and Art at the University of Pennsylvania. More recently she was an Artist in Residence in Baroda, India. In 2007 she had a Residency at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, which included a Solo Exhibition of her Paintings. She was again in India for a Painting Residency just outside New Delhi, winter 2012. And in November of 2015 she was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, and has since completed a Residency in Morocco.
Stein’s work has been exhibited in Europe, South America, India and throughout the United States ,and is in the collection of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Oakland Museum of California, Dominican University, and University of Iowa Art Museum, to name a few.
Steins exhibition record is extensive.
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TRANSMISSION GALLERY
OAKLAND 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612 Open Thurs-Sat, 12 to 5 pm till 8 pm on the first Friday of the month and by appointment Accessibility: This a 2nd floor art gallery, accessible by stairs. |
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