Diane Christiansen: This is the Only Day

October 22 - December 31,2022

From RULE Gallery: "RULE Gallery is pleased to present This Is the Only Day, an exhibition of paintings and animations by Diane Christiansen at our Marfa, TX, location. A public reception will be held Saturday, October 22, from 5-7pm with the artist in attendance. The show will be on view from October 22 to December 31, 2022. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 11am-5 pm. Diane Christiansen's exhibition, This Is the Only Day, stems from the profound losses many of us have communally experienced over the past several years. Whether construed as abstract or narrative, the works on view illustrate a response to these challenges, bringing awareness to life's fundamental impermanence and its enduring illusion of solidity. The artists' multimedia practice ranges from large-scale paintings on paper, intimate, fresco-like works on plaster, and hand-drawn, stop-motion animations - each feeding and informing one another with their sharp sense of line, color and movement. Christiansen works meditatively, using recording, revision, and erasure, creating a resolution to brighten the world while revealing connections to what is most meaningful. Eschewing the traditional canvas, she constructs many of her paintings on plaster, a surface that, in the artist's words, is "uncontrollable, erratic and keeps its history." Both the unpredictability and unforgiving nature of the medium allow her to build living works that must contend with their mistakes and, like life, surprise us with their depth. Additionally, Christiansen's large paintings on paper become alive with activity as an arm reaches out to grasp an object or seeking limbs sprout into a bright red sky. Two entities in profile seem to be calling to each other in front of an atmosphere of interconnected nodes that bubble through the ether. The three animations in the exhibition are each microcosmic meditations of exploration and creation. With inspirations that range from ancient cave paintings in the Grotte de Niaux, France, to Betty Boop cartoons, Christiansen explores the cyclic nature of life and the 'Truth of Suffering' that all beings must endure. The newest piece, Speck, made in close collaboration with fellow animator Allie Trigoso, depicts the journey of a detached yet self-aware hand moving through a stunning universe of ever-changing worlds and wonders. Running through the exhibition like a connective thread is a hardy determination to see each day as a gift, a sense of joy in experiencing our time to the fullest. Diane Christiansen (b. 1958; lives and works in Chicago, IL) received a B.A. from Grinnell College in 1981, an M.S.W. from Loyola University, and her M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both in 1990. Her paintings, drawings, animations, and large-scale collaborative installations, have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe at RULE Gallery, Denver, CO; Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago, IL; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Herron Galleries, Indianapolis, IN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Elmhurst Art Museum, and the Armory in Pasadena among others. "

RULE Gallery (Marfa) 204 E. San Antonio St
Marfa, Texas 79843
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