FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Ave.
Highland Park, CA 90042
323.472.6237
kristi@kristienglegallery.com

Kristi Engle Gallery is pleased to present new work from painter, Miriam Nöske. Working in oil and watercolor, Nöske's paintings are a study of the current trend in advertising prevalent in Los Angeles and its environs: supergraphic advertisements that cover the entire surface of a wall or building. This currently ubiquitous media-type has become a part of the landscape of the city of Los Angeles. In her new work, Nöske uses this cultural phenomenon to examine the frequent presence of the female figure in advertising and the narrative language that runs through it.

Advertising attempts to convey the allure of an urban lifestyle that is exciting and spontaneous. However, the images used to express this are tightly constructed and highly formal in composition. Nöske paints reproductions of advertisements in which female models appear. The models are sometimes used only as a series of geometrical shapes to catch the eye. Nöske emphasizes these compositional aspects in their poses, particularly the use of negative space, revealing a vigorous use of formal aesthetics under a veil of visual signifiers.

Nöske combines this figural work with recompositions of Los Angeles architecture. The manner in which sunlight reflects off high rise buildings in Los Angeles is distinctive. The open spaces of the city allow light to come in directly and glass windows become a palette for myriads of colors. Focusing on these reflections, Nöske transforms them into geometric patterns, changing the architecture from a visual signifier of urban life to abstractions that have distinct formal qualities.

Using hyper-conscious advertising and the unplanned but recurrent abstractions in the architecture of Los Angeles, Nöske demonstrates the parallels that exist between the representation and the nonobjective as well as the links between conceptual narrative and purely formal composition.

Miriam Nöske is originally from Hamburg, Germany. She received her MFA at CalArts and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

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