H. Kazan Fine Arts proudly presents Objects Are Forever, an exhibition featuring the work of five innovative and accomplished Los Angeles area artists, working in a variety of media, but specifically using objects as the preferred medium to communicate their artistic philosophy. Participating artists are: Betty Bairamian, Ursula Kammer-Fox, David Jang, Joyce Kohl and Nancy Kyes. The exhibition is curated by artist Kaloust Guedel, who has also curated numerous exhibitions in the past.

While these artists are quite diverse artistically, their work overlaps in the use of objects excavated from pop culture. Beginning with Marcel Duchamp in the early 20th century, artists have turned to found objects to form their compositions, incorporating the concepts of recycling and repurposing.

The underlying point of view of the exhibition is to highlight the role of coincidence. Artists come across objects and they gain a new stature, while similar objects might end up with an entirely different fate. This parallels a very similar sense of coincidence in our lives, showing how encountering others or new experiences may serve as a crossroads, permanently changing the direction of our lives.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Betty Bairamian (Glendale, CA) Betty holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in addition to advanced certificates in art. Since launching her career, she has accumulated an impressive amount of accolades and awards from art galleries, art institutes and universities in California. She believes that true art is the essence of soul. A multidisciplinary artist in free form mosaics, sculptures and paintings, has developed a perception in her pieces. Betty’s versatile artistic style shows her individuality in her created objects and spiritually inspired compositions. She incorporates balance, color and texture in her work. She projects her understanding of world in the intricate colors of her art. Betty’s work has caught the eye of many art galleries and museums with her exquisite pieces of modern art. Born in Armenia, she has brought the soul of her country and added onto the canvas her version of modern art, enriching the world of art in Los Angeles.  

Ursula Kammer-Fox (Santa Monica, CA) earned bachelor’s degrees in Germany and Japan before emigrating to the United States where she earned a bachelor’s degree in French from California State University Northridge. Kammer-Fox creates collages and assemblages “because they allow [her] to explore the ambiguities of power, religion and sex, while recycling man-and nature-made leftovers, rediscovering and rearranging the familiar, [and] telling unfinished stories.” The assemblages on view in this exhibition are figural and come from two series, the Flatmates and the Oooks. Kammer-Fox’s manipulations of found objects give birth to emotive characters that suggest new narratives independent of their pieces and parts. Kammer-Fox has served as a board member for the Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 and as chair of the Los Angeles Assemblage Group. She exhibits frequently in the Los Angeles area, most recently at LA Artcore, the Riverside Art Museum, Palos Verdes Art Center and El Camino College.

David Jang (Los Angeles) was born in Seoul, Korea and lives and works in Los Angeles. He earned a BFA from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jang’s two-dimensional and sculptural work incorporates and is inspired by the artifacts of our modern “throwaway” society. Deconstructed, the detritus of mass produced plastic water bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard boxes and packing materials become formal experiments that often also incorporate wood, wax, oil and stain. The resulting structures and imagery have “an expressive spatial growth pattern” that evokes the order and rhythm of the natural world while still referencing the industry and technology of our urban environment. Jang is a member of the Korean Artists Association of Southern California and exhibits frequently in the Los Angeles area, most recently at the Downtown Art Center Gallery, the West Los Angeles College Gallery, the Korean Cultural Center and the LA Art Association’s Gallery 825.

Joyce Kohl (Altadena, CA) received her MFA at California State University, Fullerton and is a professor of art at California State University, Bakersfield. Kohl has completed numerous commissions and public art projects including those from the Los Angeles Metro for the Gold Line’s Claremont Station (to be completed in 2014), and the Cities of Santa Monica and Bakersfield. Kohl also also completed a collaborative project in Harare, Zimbabwe as part of her Fulbright award grant project. She has exhibited recently in local venues such as L.A. Artcore, Xiem Gallery, El Camino College, and the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Recent international exhibitions include the Exchange Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum and the International Exchange Exhibition in Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand.

Nancy Kyes (South Pasadena, CA) is currently working toward her Master of Arts at California State University, Los Angeles and teaches theater arts at The Sequoyah School in Pasadena. In addition, she conducts art making and sculpture workshops for teachers and youth in a variety of venues in the Los Angeles area. In 2003-2004 Kyes was an artist-in-residence at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. She has exhibited her work widely in Southern California at venues including Santa Ana College, Angel’s Gate Center for the Arts, Pasadena City College, the Todd Madigan Gallery at California State University, Bakersfield, the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock.