Mindy Solomon is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of artist Caroline Larsen in Miami. Inspired by the landscapes of California and Arizona, Larsen imbues the same hyper pigmented approach to her newest works.
In her artist statement she writes about her work: “Over the past year I have started using more brushwork, sourcing images from real estate listings for mid-century modern homes in southern California as a springboard; I have started to re explore the genre of landscape paintings. When I first started making the woven paintings (mountains, ships and cars) I would think of each little squeezed square as a pixel and now I am using a very small brush and applying paint in a pointillism manner. The works that I am working on currently have a maximalist approach to paint application with the works being filled with colors and information. Recent visits to California and Sedona have spurred a new body of work about the super blooms, when brightly colored wildflowers dot the landscape. My super bloom works combine the techniques of brush work and squeezed paint, with the foreground being painted flat and the mountain ranges in the back piped and juicy. I let the eye rest in a body of water and the sky.”
Each work in the exhibition is like a technicolor postcard from the 1950’s-homespun, folksy, wholesome yet sophisticated. In her interview from Metal Magazine conducted by Philippa Dimitriadi, Larsen opined:
Inspiration for my paintings comes from day to day. I try to get out and see a lot of art and I love looking at textiles and patterns. I love that you think of them as having a “folklore aesthetic.” I am so interested in folk, craft and outsider art and I think those influences come through in some of my mark-making.
Her landscapes have a freshness and immediacy that draws the viewer in. The desire to touch is inevitable. Practicing restraint is very difficult. It is the goal of the artist to invite interaction to the point of wanting to fully engage-visually navigating the Peaks and Valleys of their imagination.
About Caroline Larsen
Caroline Larsen is a maximalist painter. Her flowers and landscapes are technicolored dreamscapes featuring rich oil paint piped through an icing bag. Larsen piles pigment higher and higher as chromatic bouquets pulsate off their hypnotic backgrounds. Her newest body of work depicts nature’s phenomenal super blooms as they flower across the southwest. Combining delicate pointillism brushwork and her signature squeezed application style, Larsen’s new paintings express the landscape in a dynamic and vibrant way.
Notable exhibitions have included The Beyond, Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Artists organized by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas and traveled to North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. Larsen has had solo exhibitions at Wave Hill Botanical Gardens, The Hole NYC, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, Gordon Galleries in Tel Aviv, Dio Horia, Mykonos,
Greece, Andrew Refacz, Chicago and in Hong Kong with Over the Influence. Work has been presented in group exhibitions at Zona Maco, Mexico City, Art Athena, Athens, The Pit, Palm Springs, Alberta Benda, Los Angeles in an exhibition curated by Mindy Solomon, Lehman College at the City University of New York, a two person presentation at Intersect Aspen with Mindy Solomon, Manscaping presented by The Hole in New York, Los Angeles and Paris. Over the past year Larsen’s has shown wildly in Asia, with works being presented at Art Central Hong Kong, Taipei Dangdai Arts & Ideas, Jing Art Beijing, KIAF Art Seoul, she has upcoming exhibitions in Shanghai and Bangkok.
Larsen curated Spiritual Art Advisory (AKA the Tarot Card Show) alongside Sarah Potter presented at Spring Break in 2019. She was the artist in residency in Mykonos, Greece with the Dio Horia Gallery in 2018 & 2019. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts, Honors from Pratt Institute, a Visual Arts and Art History Education degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and a Honors Bachelors of Arts from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Caroline’s paintings have been reviewed and mentioned in The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Office Magazine, Iberia Airlines Magazine, Wall Street International, Artsy and Angeleno Magazine. Notable collections include the Aishti Foundation in Lebanon, JB Art Collection, Miami, TD Canada and TD America, Wythe Hotel, Brooklyn, New York, Equitable Bank and Canada Goose Collection. She is represented by Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, Florida.
