FP Contemporary Welcomes Artists Hunt Rettig and Stephanie Visser

FP Contemporary celebrates two artists, Hunt Rettig and Stephanie Visser this Saturday, May 13th. Hunt Rettig will be featured in a solo show entitled “I’m Twelve Push-ups Away from the Perfect Body."

"Hunt is a world traveler. One year he packed up and moved his family from Aspen to Chiang Mai, Thailand and immersed his kids in the schools there while he was out building large sculptures out of twigs and leaves in the woods with the locals.” Dahmen and Rettig have worked together since 2009, via a different gallery. Since Rettig lived in Aspen, Dahmen hadn’t met the artist in person when he first began selling his work. When they finally met, they hit it off and Dahmen invited him to exhibit at FP Contemporary.

“When I was twelve I stepped into Jesus Soto's namesake museum in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela to forever be changed, said Rettig. “His work taught me art can and should be engaging on many levels.”

FP Contemporary will also present “Paintings by Stephanie Visser,” in the project room. Dahmen felt that Rettig and Visser's work would complement each other. "I chose to introduce Stephanie's paintings in the Project Gallery with Hunt Rettig's 3D assemblages because Hunt's work is quite "polished" with their internal reflective elements and plexi surfaces while Stephanie's work is very painterly. I like the juxtaposition of ‘painterly’ meets ‘polished.’”

Visser said she was looking forward to exhibiting her work at FP Contemporary.  “I have had the pleasure of getting to know Paul Dahmen and speaking with him at length where we talked about art and the art world.  And, interesting that we found we have something in common.  Both of us were born and raised in Michigan although at opposite sides of the state.  He hails from the Detroit area and I am from a very small town on the western side called South Haven. Instant understanding and an instant hit. Not a common occurrence in a city the size of LA and very refreshing.”

Visser spent the past five years caring for her elderly parents. “Slowly, and with great love and intimacy, I saw them through to their respective deaths. And just like a mother’s physiology is irreversibly changed by labor and delivery, death of parents, like a form of reverse labor, forever changes the child. My psychological hard edges wore away through the process, and so have the incisive brush strokes of my previous work. The old geometric lines, like the steady, reassuring presence of the two loving souls now forever gone, too disappeared. It was in this ensuing vacuum and through the softening peace acquired only through life’s passage that my new palette was born.” As life affected Visser, it also inspired her Perseus series. “The work’s abstract nature, in my mind’s eye evocative of Perseus-like celestial forms, is but a reflection of my longing for the primal connection to the very beings that once gave me life; my own solitary whale call across the eternity of time and space.” 

Enjoy an artist reception on Saturday May 13th, 2017 from 6-8pm at FP Contemporary (5835 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232). On view through June 17^th, 2017. Call the gallery for additional info at 323.935.1355; http://fpcontemporary.com/