JIM MORPHESIS TIME AND DESIRE now showing at the GARBOUSHIAN Gallery in Beverly Hills through March 10th, 2012. Photography Journal by Ginger Van Hook

At first glance, the ROSE created by Jim Morphesis is an immediate reference to the soul of the incredibly popular red rose as it has evolved in painting throughout its history, but your first impression would be incomplete if you did not recognize the unique icon in history who created these stunning and sensual paintings of the rose from the Exhibition- "TIME AND DESIRE!"

The Icon in this exhibition which opened at the Garboushian Gallery in Beverly Hills this week, is non other than Jim Morphesis, a prolific painter and artist whose face has been greeting every northbound driver who ever wanted to get onto the 101 Hollywood freeway 

from the 110 Pasadena freeway since 1984!

 (The muralist, Kent Twitchell, painted the mural of Jim Morphesis in preparation for the festivities of the 1984 Olympics and has memorialized the space under the concrete causeways as a place where art and artists still exit to document our local contemporary histories.)

These unique paintings of ROSES and their multitude of variations of oil on panel reveal the layers upon layers of masterful strokes that not only represent the flower, but also exorts the sensuality that evolved in a metaphor of desire, pleasure, intimacy, magnetism and YES, the female lips; 

those desirable lips!

With a palette of vibrant red oils, raised textures and glistening clear glitter to expose drops of water upon the petals, Morphesis has recreated the ultimate pleasure in viewing. The red paint attracts, the delicate inner folds are alluring, and the images are seductive, each in its own way as unique to the pattern of petals as each woman is an individual personality.

Aside from the main attraction on the white walls, the equally impressive and stunning attraction of

 TIME AND DESIRE was the magnificent showing of art patrons 

welcoming, surrounding and congratulating

 Jim Morphesis as he shook hands, 

with his big wide grin and posed for pictures like a rock star. 

See for yourself, images here from the opening reception and additional artist talk scheduled:

Please join us for an Art Talk with Howard Fox  (Curator Emeritus, Los Angeles County Museum of Art)  and artist Jim Morphesis, at  GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY  427 North Camden Drive Beverly Hills, California 90210 on Sunday, February 12, at 3 pm.  This talk will take place amidst the work of  Time and Desire,  Morphesis' exhibition of new paintings  currently on view at the gallery.        Due to limited space, please RSVP by  Thursday, February 9 to lori@garboushian.com                   Garboushian Gallery

GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY debuts Time and Desire,  an exhibition of thirteen new oil and mixed media paintings,  accompanied by a series of works on paper, by  Los Angeles artist Jim Morphesis.  Central to this exhibition is a single recurring subject-  the rose- through which the artist envisions the exhibition  title as a conceptual wellspring.  Morphesis explains: "When we consider the clock,  we deal with both the past and future.  We long for what was, and we yearn for-or  fear-what might be.  For me, time is always about desire,  and the rose is the most sensual memento mori image."  Time and Desire is on view at  GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY in Beverly Hills,  from January 28 -to- March 10, 2012.   (Text courtesy Garboushian Gallery) http://www.garboushian.com/

Jim Morphesis' paintings have been shown in nearly  two hundred national and international exhibitions  since the early 1970s, and are in the permanent collections  of more than 25 museums, including the  Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,  and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Morphesis has been recognized with awards that include:  the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  Modern and Contemporary Art Council,  New Talent Purchase Award,  the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant for Painting and Sculpture  and a First Prize at the Fourth Florence International  Biennial of Contemporary Art.  Born in Philadelphia, Morphesis received his  Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from  Tyler School of Art of Temple University in 1970,  and earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from  the California Institute of the Arts in 1972.  He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Linda Kunik Solo Show Exhibition at Gallery 825 Opened Sat. Feb 26, 2011

Linda Kunik Exhibition in Los Angeles, California Gallery 825
Solo Show Feb 26, 2011
Photo by Ginger Van Hook@2011

Linda Kunik with Flora Kao Solo Show Exhibition 2011
Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2011

Linda Kunik, Solo Exhibition 2011
Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2011

Juna Amano, Marjan Vayghan, Linda Kunik, Ginger Van Hook and Katherine Semple.

Juna Amano, Marjan Vayghan, Linda Kunik and Ginger Van Hook ©2011

Juna Amano, Marjan Vayghan, Linda Kunik and Katherine Semple attend Linda Kunik's solo show
in February 2011 at Gallery 825, Los Angeles, California

Reception: 6-9pm, Saturday, February 26, 2011

Admission: Free

Location: Gallery 825: 825 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Show runs through March 25, 2011.

For information call 310.652.8272 or e-mail gallery825@laaa.org.

To slightly modify a quote by Jose Bergamin, a Spanish writer, essayist, poet and playwright: "To be hungry and eat is the perfection of sensuality rarely achieved." Linda Kunik's provocative Ripe exhibition features close-up, abstracted C-prints of heirloom tomatoes, at their most sensual, and at their most sexual. The photos are not an end in themselves, but rather serve to unfold a more complex knot of concerns about life, pleasure, sensuality and sexuality.  Vegetables have a sensuality all their own, but Kunik skillfully exaggerates their sensual characteristics in this new body of work.


Los Angeles Art Association proudly presents Fast Living, an all-media exploration of self-indulgence juried by Elizabeth East, Director - LA Louver, opening at Gallery 825 on February 26, 2011.  In addition to Fast Living, artists Susan Arena, Linda Kunik and Dan Monteavaro will also be featured in solo exhibitions.

Linda Kunik poses beside her sensual red tomatoes at her exhibition on August 15th, 2010
at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2010

“…My vision is for everyone to have their own garden, large or small and if that is not possible, to raise enough awareness for the people to shop locally and support their local Farmer’s Markets…” Ms. Kunik states as she points to the five large gardens she created in the back yard of her home, replacing flowerbeds and lawns in order to plant vegetables, herbs and fruit trees. Kunik wanted to give back to her community, raise awareness of the need for personal gardens and utilize the artistic medium to make her statement. “My work has always referenced the land. From my early days as a watercolorist painting landscapes to later works making paintings of deforestation or global warming; the beauty and fragility of the earth has been a recurring theme. Combining my agricultural practice with my art-making seems to be a natural evolution.”

  The prospect of jumping into an artistic adventure to produce homegrown fruits and vegetables with a group of fellow artists was contagious. Thus the enthusiasm carried this labor of love into the summer as Ms. Kunik worked with a group of artists to bring in soil, create raised beds and began to fill them with the seeds of tomatoes, carrots, spinach, lettuce, corn, and a variety of herbs, citrus fruits and assorted vegetables. Some of the artists participating in Plant It Forward include Juna Amano (Painting & Sculpture), Marissa Magdalena (Installation, Performance and Drawing), Ofunne Obiamawe (Photographer), Michiko Smith (Painting) and Ginger Van Hook (Photographer) as well as the new artists joining every week.

Artist Linda Kunik, (center holding poodle Leelu) with Artist Juna Amano, (left) and Artist Marjan Vayghan (right)
pose for a picture while working in the garden at Plant It Forward Linda Kunik's Starving Artist Project.
Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2010

Linda Kunik's Heirloom Tomatoes as they are harvested from her garden.
Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2010

Linda Kunik's Plant it Forward Garden begins it's yearly growth spurt.
Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2010

Harvest time at Linda Kunik's garden Plant It Forward.
Photo by Ginger Van Hook©2010

Artist Marjan Vayghan, (left-right), Artist Juna Amano, Artist and Founder of Plant It Forward Linda Kunik,
Leelu the poodle resting in Linda's arms and Artist Ginger Van Hook. 2010