FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

ART EXHIBITION: CARRIE WALKER’S “WILL FIGHT IF CORNERED”

April 24 through June 5 , 2005
Opening Reception: April 23, 2005: 6-9pm
Gallery hours: Thurs - Sat, 12 - 6pm & by appointment
for images, please contact: Kristi Engle, 323/472-6237

The body is the focal point of most animal illustration, a body that is pointedly different from our own human one. Haunches, wings & tails indicate anatomies that have evolved differently than ours. However vertebrates, as a rule have two organs for seeing, two for hearing, one for smelling and one for tasting and vocalizing, all placed within close proximity of each other - the face.

It is within the face that commonality between human and animal is most apparent. Working from photographs in field guides and other books that cover such topics as raising chickens as pets and breeding birds of prey, Canadian artist, Carrie Walker draws fantastically beautiful drawings of animals’ faces, creating a unique kind of animal portraiture. Something is communicated to us through these faces, something somehow within as well as outside the human experience.

With each work, the common and/or Latin name of each creature as well as the exact day the work was executed is noted. This information serves to satisfy the factually curious and is in keeping with a tradition of scientific annotation. In most cases, a piece of text from the book from which the original image came is also included. This text is a more complex addition, sometimes so removed from its original context that it can only be read metaphorically.

Walker manges to create in her work, an experience of empathy with her subjects while still leaving each creature its animal-ness. This effect is enhanced by her meticulous rendering, that the New Yorker called “reminiscent of pages from a Leonardo folio or a Rembrandt sketchbook.”

Walker lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she attended the Emily Carr Institute.

Kristi Engle Gallery devotes itself primarily to solo exhibitions of new works by contemporary artists. It is located in Highland Park, near the corner of Ave. 50 and York Blvd.