Jessica Dalva & Annie Murphy-Robinson

Annie Murphy-Robinson & Jessica Dalva

May 1 – 31, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, May 1st, 8-11 PM

Annie Murphy-Robinson
Roles and Poses

At first glance, Annie Murphy-Robinson’s drawings look like photographs of impossibly beautiful girls in a range of settings–from the miraculous to the mundane. No works of emulsion on photo paper, these are charcoal drawings of the artist’s own daughters. Prolonged viewing reveals the impeccable technique of the medium’s greatest living artist capturing an essence that would be unavailable to anyone not immediately related to them. Annie’s work exposes a familiarity that isn’t just a perfect rendering, but reveals the complex emotions of her subjects in a way that transcends the sterility of forced poses. Her chosen medium may be charcoal, but her product is real human empathy.

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Casey and the Quilt (Emerging/Hiding)**
Charcoal on paper, 2009, 42 x 62 in. (47 x 67 in. framed) $6,200

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Casey and the Red Ball**
Charcoal on paper 35 x 42 in. (42.5 x 49.75 in. framed) $4,200

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Casey “Theodora”**
Charcoal on paper, 2014. 39.5 x 31.5 in. (44.5 x 36.5 in. framed) $6,800

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Casey, Nana’s Bra**
Charcoal on paper, 2015. 42 x 62 in. (47 x 67 in. framed) $6,600

**Robinson_Dragonfly-Eyes**
Charcoal on paper, 19.75 x 13 in. (24 x 18 in. framed) $3,000

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Emily and Hailey “Empty Lot”**
Charcoal on paper, 2009, 42 x 54 in. (47 x 36.5 in. framed) $5,000

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Emily Tumbleweed**
Charcoal on paper, 2013, 49.5 x 35.5 in. (54.5 x 40.5 in. framed) $7,500

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Casey and Emily “Gabrielle’s Lamp”**
Charcoal on paper, 2009, 42 x 32 in. (47 x 37 framed) $5,600

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Wedding Dress**
Charcoal on paper, 2014, 51 x 38 in. (56 x 43 in. framed) $8,200

**Annie Murphy-Robinson – Wedding Dress (resignation)**
Charcoal on paper, 2014, 51 x 38 in. (56 x 43 in. framed) $8,200

About her method:
All of Annie’s pieces are sanded charcoal on paper. She uses 300gm BFK Rives printmaking paper. Her charcoal is a mix of compressed char-kole not pastel charcoal (Look for brown undertones or blue not silvery gray), vine 3mm Winsor & Newton, and compressed Winsor & Newton extra-soft. Her sandpapers vary, but she tends to use a 400grain, 1″ square–folded. Her composition is block-in: using charcoal to create dark, medium and light areas, then using a small electric sander with 400 grain sand paper. She sands the entire surface of the paper, removing sizing and opening the weave of the paper’s texture. She always starts with the eyes. She works from photos and tries to match via cropping a 1:1 ratio between her drawing and the original photo. She keeps an inventory of various croppings from the same image as focal reference for the rest of her illustration process until the drawing is finished.

JESSICA DALVA
Hapax Legomena

The term “Hapax Legomena” is used to describe words that only appear once in a text or language, often rendering them untranslatable. Each piece in this series revolves around an individual word, a facet, a unique expression of a part of the complex variety of personal battles we fight. These experiences can be difficult to convey due to the lack of a context to anchor them as well as the inherent gap between understanding and expression. The pieces are singular expressions of an idea, hapax legomena, in that they are representing distinctive concepts, as well as attempting to communicate the untranslatable through the imperfect language of art. The show focuses on one’s relationship with oneself, internal wars, and the entanglements of love. The sculptures are a navigation through fears, moments of clarity and joy, and nightmares.

This is Jessica Dalva‘s third feature exhibition at La Luz de Jesus Gallery.