Transference & Translation, Baila Litton; Flaunt, Arabella Proffer; Floating Worlds, Jean Kondo Weigl
Opening Receptions for all three: Thursday May 16, 5:30 – 8:00pm
The Artists Archives is excited to start our summer exhibitions off with the arresting paintings and mixed media works of three new Archived women Artists in our newly renovated galleries. Floating Worlds, Jean Kondo Weigl; Transference & Translation, Baila Litton; and Flaunt, Arabella Proffer, will all grace our gallery walls May 16 – June 29. Each of these accomplished artists presents a unique body of strong, narrative work presented simultaneously in three solo exhibitions.
Arabella Proffer, who is now in the final stages of cancer and under Hospice care, returned to painting in oils in 2024. While each artist’s work displays surrealist tendencies, Proffer’s lush, candy colored Superfine Tableau paintings move well into the realm of Pop Surrealism. She describes this series as, “…a self-indulgent escape from my own decay, transcendental painting with a nod to Dutch Golden Age still lives…” We are excited to present this new work of Superfine Tableaus as well as assorted works from her Biomorphic series, and Portraits both as paintings and digital NFTs in Flaunt.
Litton and Weigl each use personal, and social commentary to take on issues of immigration, and the melding of cultural identities in their work. In Floating Worlds Weigl, who is a third generation Japanese American, balances formal and pictorial elements in the depiction of narratives that combine memory, imagination, allegory, authenticity, and truth. “…the paintings portray scenes from the floating world of the traveler – entertainer…. appearing in the form of human and animal figures, characters represent immigrants and fugitives, and the contrast between civilization and the natural order.”
Each series of works shown in Transference & Translation forces us in some way to confront ourselves, as we confront the other. The world of immigrants, displaced people, and the “everyman” play distinct roles in Biala Litton’s work. Litton’s work combines the elements of painting, drawing and collage into skin-like layers bringing surface and depth into each work. Her Stories portraits work on the premise of people making appraisals of other people, particularly those who are different from us in race, age, and gender, based on appearance only. She pulls each of the women’s experiences, history, and personality, up onto the surface of their skin for us to recognize and acknowledge. Litton also uses the collage medium advantageously in the Displaced Project series, “… to reflect the “order and disorder of events that occur throughout life.” In the Everyman works, “Each image is made up of numerous ethnicities, genders, and age demographics. These materials allow exploration of the multiple meanings of race and ethnicity. My goal is to symbolize the identities we all share.”