Kathleen Henderson - Watch Me Make You Disappear

KATHLEEN HENDERSON

  WATCH ME MAKE YOU DISAPPEAR


January 4 - February 1, 2020


For inquiries, email info@track16.com



LA TIMES REVIEW

" In 35 blistering recent drawings at Track 16, greed, pride and vanity play out in oil stick on paper 

— raw impulses matched by raw, urgent line."

 by Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times

Read at latimes.com



Her Outtakes artist book available at the gallery and on our webshop.


Artist Kathleen Henderson takes on what may be the biggest issue of our crisis-laden times; human folly in the face of extinction. But she does so with a sense of humor. Henderson’s emotive drawings show man bumbling through the world, tripping and fumbling, as the litany of crises mount. Some are trapped, as Narcissus was, stupidly gazing at their own reflections. Others are more literally blinded by the bags they wear over their heads. They stand no chance of even knowing what telltale signs of doom they are missing; sitting ducks. Artemis of Ephesus, a mother goddess and protector of pregnant women, makes an appearance in two drawings. In one she has stepped onto the stage and taken the microphone; could she be our potential heroine? But Artemis cannot save even mothers and their vulnerable children in this world, now too deeply poisoned by man’s unrelenting greed. Henderson never really points the finger in her work. Instead her drawings make us all complicit in the fate that awaits us. Our human folly so evident. Our stupidity laid bare.

“Kathleen’s drawings gnaw at me long after seeing them,” says guest curator Jessica Hough. “The figures are goon-like and the quality of the line with which they are drawn adds an unsettling energy. I think she is translating onto paper a familiar feeling right now. A threat to humankind that hangs thick and heavy in our psyche.”

Known primarily for her drawings made with black oil stick on white paper, Henderson has incorporated color into this new work; in some instances suggesting a bloody rawness and at other times a queasy green toxic ooze. Thirty-five new drawings made over the last year will give audiences the chance to revisit this brilliant artist and satirist whose last solo exhibition in Los Angeles was in 2015. Henderson will also install a grid of smaller drawings on one wall that are "outtakes," or clippings, from some of her larger works. Made over a longer period of years, this array of drawings will give those new to her work a key to unlock Henderson's complex world view.  


A reception for the artist will be held on January 4 from 7 until 10:00pm. On January 30, the artist will be in conversation with guest curator Jessica Hough from 7:30 until 8:30pm in the gallery. 



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Kathleen Henderson is a visual artist living and working in the Bay Area. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo shows in LA, and San Francisco as well as the Drawing Center in New York. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and is in the collections of the Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is currently a staff artist at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, CA and senior editor at the Creative Growth magazine. 


Jessica Hough is an independent curator and writer living and working in Los Angeles. She served as Director of Exhibitions for the California Historical Society from 2012-2018. Previous to that she was Director, Exhibitions, Publications, and Programs at the Hammer Museum, Director of the Mills College Art Museum, and Curatorial Director at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.  


Track 16 Gallery opened in 1994 in a 10,000 square foot space at Bergamot Station. Founded by Tom Patchett, the gallery prospered there until 2012 when it was forced to move to make way for a new Metro station. The gallery relocated to Culver City briefly, before moving to the tenth floor of the Bendix Building in downtown Los Angeles in 2017. The gallery is now co-owned by its director Sean Meredith. With its peripatetic and experimental history, the gallery has shown hundreds of artists over the years. Track 16 operates slightly more like a traditional gallery these days but its spirit of breaking with tradition remains.

ARTIST TALK WITH JESSICA HOUGH


A drawing of a person carrying an animal through a grey background.
A drawing of a woman standing in front of a pink curtain
A drawing of a person leaning against a brick wall.
A black and white drawing of a bird sitting on a bench
A drawing of a group of people standing next to each other
A drawing of three people standing next to each other with one holding a flag
A drawing of a horse pulling a sleigh with a mountain in the background.
A drawing of two giraffes standing next to each other on a white background.
A drawing of a person sitting under a palm tree on a beach.
A drawing of a man with a shovel in his hand
A drawing of a woman laying on a bed of lily pads.
A cartoon drawing of a man holding a turtle in a field.
A drawing of a masked person holding an animal with a green and black background.
A drawing of two people sitting at a table
A drawing of two men standing next to each other in a forest
A drawing of a group of people standing next to each other.
A drawing of a man in a pink suit and tie
A drawing of a man holding a swan in his arms
A drawing of people in pink suits standing around a table
A painting of two people standing next to each other in a field.
A drawing of a man with a red cross on his face
Two people are sitting in chairs on the beach looking at the ocean.
A drawing of three men in pink suits talking into microphones
A drawing of two men with a quote from the foundation
A drawing of two people with one wearing a pink hat
A drawing of a dog looking out of a window
A drawing of a man sitting in a room with a woman laying on the floor.
A black and white drawing of two birds standing next to each other
A drawing of two people standing next to a red van
A drawing of two people holding umbrellas in the rain
A drawing of a person holding a bottle of wine
A drawing of a man kneeling down with a red ribbon around his neck
A drawing of a person kneeling down in the water.
It is a painting of a field with mountains in the background.
A drawing of a figure on a green background.
Kathleen Henderson - CV

Education
MFA Program, Queens College, Queens , New York BFA Painting, Boston University, Boston, MA

Solo Exhibitions
Watch Me make You Disappear- Track 16, LA, CA, 2019
New Work- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2014
Drawings- Paule Anglim Gallery, SF, CA 2012
Notes on a Gathering Crowd- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2012
Irresistible Empire- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2010
I Shew You A Mystery- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2008
What If I Could Draw a Bird That Could Change the World- The Drawing Center, NY, NY,2008 
Time and Space Can Change Your Life- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2007 
Salvador Donkey- Ashby Stage, Berkeley, CA,2005
Drawings- Stephen Wirtz Gallery, SF, CA, 2002

Selected Group Shows
Didn’t you Know What You were Carrying On Your Back - Rosalux, Berlin, Germany, 2019 
The End is Here- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, LA, CA, 2016
The Nothing That Is: A Drawing Show In Five Parts- CAM Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, 2015
The Possible- Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, 2014
La Bete- Galerie Impaire, Paris, France, 2010
Hot and Cold- Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, SF, CA, 2009
Good Doll- Bad Doll- Armory Center for the Arts,Pasadena, CA, 2008
Who New?- Recent Art from the Bay Area- Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2005 
Drawing First- Southern Exposure at Project Artaud, SF, CA, 1993

Awards 
National Endowment for the Arts, Works on Paper, 1992

Selected Bibliography
Renee Hoogland, A Violent Embrace, Art and Aesthetics after Representation, University Press of New England, 2014
Leah Ollman, A Cynical and Raw Approach Turns Searing, LA Times, Oct. 2012
Leah Ollman, Reviews, Art in America, Sept. 2012
Leah Ollman, Issues Tend to Draw Her, LA TImes, June 2010
Sharon Mizota, Critic’s Pick, Artforum.com, Nov. 2008
Leah Ollman, Keeping it Simple and Stark, LA Times, Dec. 2008
Holland Cotter, What if I Could Draw a Bird That Could Change the world?, The Listings, NY Times, Sept., 2008
Leah Ollman, Going Bit by Bit to a Larger effect, LA Times, March, 2007
Jody Zellen, Kathleen Henderson at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Artillery, Vol. 5, 2007
Lindsey Westbrook, Artweek, Vol. 36, July/Aug., 2005
Tripwire #6, Fall, 2003
Kenneth Baker, Goode and Henderson at Wirtz, San Francisco Chronicle, March, 2002

Public Collections
The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

Residencies
Lucas Artists Residency Program, Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, CA, 2017, 2015 ,2012, 2009
Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, CA, 2012, 2009
The Oxbow School, Napa, CA, 2012, 2009

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