Brian Sharp
April 6 – May 11, 2024
Gallery reception: Saturday, April 6 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm
We are pleased to announce “Brian Sharp,” a small and tightly focused exhibition of somewhat older (most dating from 2016), medium-size (typically measuring either 48 x 36 or 68 x 52.5 inches), oil on linen paintings by this mid-career (b. 1974, Akron OH) Los Angeles artist.
Please join us for an opening reception on Saturday, April 6 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. “Brian Sharp” is presented in conjunction with “Hannah Karsen: Seven.” Both exhibitions continue through May 11 at as-is.la
Once known for making small, lovable, abstract paintings—scaled thus to perhaps maximize their nearly irresistible charm—Brian Sharp, in and around 2016, produced a body of somewhat larger, nearly human-sized images. Impressive in a different way, these were more ambivalent than what had come before, less generous, more demanding of the viewer; offering a tantalizing reminder of the old pleasures with one hand while snatching it away with the other and leaving a different, unexpected reward in its place.
Ten of Sharp’s thoughtful, provocative abstract paintings were presented in a memorable 2017 exhibition in the basement gallery of the short-lived but highly influential exhibition space 356 Mission, and at least one of these, along with some contemporaneous artworks, make a welcome return appearance here in “Brian Sharp,” the artist’s second show at as-is.la
Brian Sharp received his BFA from Ohio State University in 1998 and an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2001. He has exhibited extensively including one-person shows at Norma Desmond Productions, Los Angeles (2009), China Art Objects, Los Angeles (2009), ACME, Los Angeles (2010, 2012), 356 Mission (2017) and as-is.la (2023), among others.
