Koplin Del Rio

For Immediate Release July 2012

It is a great pleasure for Koplin Del Rio Gallery to announce its 30th year in business. Since Marti Koplin first opened Koplin Gallery in January of 1982, the gallery has continued to expand upon its original commitment of building and nurturing artists’ careers. The gallery’s foundation was built upon exhibiting influential artwork based on historical, social and globally relevant themes.

The current KDR program includes established artists from its early history in the 80’s, several
mid-career artists, as well as a new generation of exciting, emerging artists. The gallery has weathered a variety of economic conditions since 1982, including four relocations in Los Angeles. The integrity of the program has held resolute throughout, due to the support of a loyal and enthusiastic patronage that continues to invigorate and inspire the exhibitions.

Koplin Del Rio opened 2012 with a comprehensive exhibition of paintings and drawings by mid-career artist Kenny Harris titled, China. The artist spent seven weeks exploring the vast reaches of the Chinese landscape documenting his experience through on-site drawings and watercolors of landscapes and interiors. The exhibition was a complete overview of the artistic process featuring a sampling of the sketches, oil studies and finished paintings.

Long-time gallery artist Sandow Birk opened next with the second installment of his epic American Qur’an project. The nearly 100 completed Qur’an pages are currently part of an extensive touring exhibition that originated at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA; Grinnell College, IA and is continuing on to additional locations.

Following Birk, the gallery calendar featured consecutive solo shows by emerging artists: Melissa Cooke’s monumental self-portrait drawings; Michelle Muldrow‘s lush interiors of retail meccas and Shay Bredimus’s expressive portraits in tattoo ink on drafting film. These exhibitions exemplify reoccurring themes in the program including ethnicity, identity, community, environment and history. In addition, to complement these viewpoints, KDR is pleased to also introduce new artists: Eric Beltz, Josh Dorman, Suné Woods, as well as, a re-connection with an earlier friend, sculptress Sarah Perry.

In its 30th year, KDR has also added a new and fitting component to the program, Life Drawing at KDR. Drawing has always been a focus and fundamental backbone in the history of the gallery with the annual group Drawings I – VIII exhibitions. This salon format will function as a quarterly installation in the back room drawing gallery. The informal shows will feature selections of life model drawings curated by Ron De Angelis, KDR’s Gallery Manager of eight years. The drawing group meets every two weeks at the gallery after hours to draw from a live model. This on-going series of exhibitions will display drawings from the attendees of the uninstructed sessions, which include a range of established and unknown artists, as well as artists who are represented by the gallery.

In addition to its exhibition program, KDR is also committed to providing a forum for dialogue, with its ongoing series of lectures and panel discussions by visiting artists, curators and critics that are open to the public. KDR recently hosted a riveting panel discussion moderated by Rabbi Sarah Bassin and featured panelists Will Deutsch; a Jewish Six Points Fellow, and Ali Mir, Director of Muslim Student Life at USC, and artist, Sandow Birk. The panel discussed at length American Muslim and Jewish identity in art.

To conclude 2012 and celebrate KDR’s 30th anniversary, the gallery has planned a series of three invitational group shows beginning this summer and continuing through the end of the year. The consecutive exhibitions are headlined with titles reflective of the gallery’s strongest themes over the years. The titles provide an all-inclusive platform for creative expression in support of the gallery’s diverse program.  In addition, as part of the gallery’s history, KDR will also acknowledge the many artists it has had the privilege to exhibit over the years by extending invitations to a select group of artists outside of the gallery. Please join KDR in celebrating this milestone and pay homage to the artists, patrons and curators that have contributed to the vision and legacy of Koplin Del Rio Gallery.

For more information feel free to contact Ron De Angelis at (310) 836-9055.

Koplin Del Rio Anniversary Exhibitions in consecutive order:

1. Sublime: Nature, Science and the Divine in Contemporary Art July 28 - September 1

Eric Beltz
Shay Bredimus
Darlene Campbell
James Doolin
Josh Dorman
Martha Mayer Erlebacher
Mineko Grimmer
Kenny Harris
David Hines
Laurie Hogin
Joshua Levine
David Ligare
Marina Moevs
Barrie Mottishaw
Michelle Muldrow
John Nava
Len Paschoal
Tuan Phan
Bill Vuksanovich
Yuriko Yamaguchi

2. Between Truth and Fiction: Pictorial Narratives September 8 - October 19

Sandow Birk
Theophilus Brown
Wes Christensen
Einar and Jamex de la Torre
James Doolin
Cynthia Evans
John Frame
Moira Hahn
F. Scott Hess
Oldrich Kulhanék
Rico Lebrun
Tim Lowly
Norman Lundin
Michael McMillen
Robert Pruitt
Fred Stonehouse
Ruprecht von Kaufmann
Suné Woods

3. Self-Possessed: Examining Identity in the 21st Century October 27 - December 8

David Bailin
Robbie Conal
Melissa Cooke
Marianela de la Hoz
Einar and Jamex de la Torre
Ira Korman
Kerry James Marshall
Judy Nimtz
Sarah Perry