Carol Sears: Jigsaw

Carol Sears to Unveil New Series of Works at Launch Gallery

Launch LA is excited to announce its upcoming exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist Carol Sears. Jigsaw will be on view for the first time this January, a dynamic and bold new series of work that simultaneously works within the vein of and breaks away from Sears’ abstract compositions.

The cultivated chaos of Sears’ work takes a new approach in Jigsaw venturing into bolder jewel tones and interlocking abstracted forms. Each piece emanate feelings of nostalgic midcentury California in their palettes and forms, but are also referential to Sears’ Australian heritage that draws from Aboriginal art. The mixture of these two influences becomes a new vein in which her technique thrives, retaining a memory for her previous figurative work and abstracted landscapes while standing in their own right as something more.

Each piece of the Jigsaw series mirrors moments in our lives and worlds that are rife with detail, hazy from memory, and from radically different times, culminating in a piece of artwork that clicks a sublime experience into place. The soft gray backgrounds juxtaposed with louder colors are relatively new to Sears’ oeuvre, encapsulating a visual and stark contrast between these moments that exist in our memories.

Jigsaw ill be on view at Launch LA on La Brea from January 14 - February 25, 2017 with an opening reception Saturday, January 14 from 7-10pm.

About Carol Sears
Carol Sears was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1942. In the early 1960s she studied at Sydney’s prestigious Julian Ashton Studio. Sears moved to San Diego in 1965 where she was employed in the newly established art department of the University of California San Diego. There she came into contact with experimental artists such as John Baldessari, Miriam Schapiro, Harold Cohen, and Newton & Helen Harrison. Since 1972, when she moved to Los Angeles, Sears studied life drawing at UCLA and sculpture at the Claire Hanzakas studio while exhibiting and pursuing independent studio work of her own. Sears was recently named by LA Confidential Magazine as a top artist to watch after her solo exhibition at Lancaster MOAH.