ARTIST STATEMENT 2024 In Beautiful Solitude, I depict spacious skies intersected by slices of freeway to encourage one to slow down, be present and linger in the details. Since the pandemic I’ve made an effort to create paintings that offer a respite. In elevating in-between spaces that are normally at the periphery, my paintings shift attention to the wonders in the commonplace. In a natural progression from my last show, Liminal Transcendence, in which I depicted views from the parking lot, in this series I bring the freeway to the fore. I am intrigued by these solid conduits built for transition. Beginning there, over the course of the last year and a half three significant things happened that affected my work: I visited Joshua Tree for the first time (and subsequently two more times), I saw Agnes Pelton’s paintings in person, and I read Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost.
For me, Joshua Tree is transformative every visit – the vastness of the sky over the other-worldly landscape dwarfs my body and my inner turmoil, offering space in which to let it all go. I wanted to capture that spaciousness in paint, both as an exercise in cultivating clarity and stillness in my cluttered city-dwelling life, and as a way to offer it to others in the finished product. In my previous two series, Liminal and And…, the grandeur of the sky was a symbol of hope and possibility. In the desert skies, I found this grandeur to be more subtle. Back in LA, I paid more attention to gentle ombré transitions of color and pondered how to paint air.
In summer 2023, I went to see the Transcendentalist show at LACMA, featuring a dozen Agnes Pelton paintings. I was struck by the simplicity yet richness of her skies with their expertly crafted transitions of color and value, inspired by the desert where she lived. I noted Pelton’s use of small brushstrokes to achieve this effect and began to mimic the technique on larger canvases. This revelation transformed not only my skies but also my freeways. I started using smaller brushstrokes in the structures to incorporate more colors, increasing the richness, depth and texture. The fact that these techniques take more time befits the intention of the work, the slowness becoming a kind of meditation. These new painting effects led me to forego depicting clouds entirely, opening up more space with fewer elements in the compositions.
Concurrently, I read Rebecca Solnit’s book much of which is, coincidentally, set in the desert. Her descriptions of humans interacting with landscape enriched my explorations on the connection between our inner and outer lives. This line resonated deeply: “I was suspended in the beautiful solitude of the open road, in a kind of introspection that only outdoor space generates, for inside and outside are more intertwined.” Since childhood, the transitive state of long road trips – the in-betweenness of being neither here nor there – is indeed a generative space for my mind to wander, imagine or distill a query. I wanted to bring this mindset into city living, to the reality of slow-moving LA traffic, to turn annoyance into curiosity. Solnit’s use of the word “suspended” reminded me to look up, as I had in my 2021 series Looking Skyward, to find levity. I became mesmerized by the overpasses overhead – their heft suspended, the watermarks and stains, the stark shadows cast at certain times of day – full of beauty and ingenuity. My compositions shifted from a straight on perspective, sometimes placing the viewer directly beneath the structure.
In my effort to intimate spaciousness, I continue to pare down the extraneous details. In exploring notions of emptiness through asymmetrical compositions, I found a sense of uncertainty and possibility opens in daunting and exhilarating tension. The paintings are an offering for the viewer to take, or leave, what they will.
BIOGRAPHY Christine Rasmussen is an American artist raised in Pakistan, Vietnam and the United States. She received her BA (Double Major - Art Practice and Peace & Conflict Studies) from the University of California, Berkeley. Rasmussen has exhibited in multiple juried exhibitions and her work is in private collections worldwide. Her work has been featured in Not Real Art’s Q+Art, ShoutOut LA, Artillery, Art & Cake and Voyage LA among others. She was awarded a Chalk Hill Artist Residency, was commissioned for the prestigious Artist Label Program at Imagery Estate Winery, and her work is in the Hilbert Museum of California Art. Rasmussen lives and works in Los Angeles.
RESUME
b. 1987 - Karachi, Pakistan Works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION 2009Bachelor of Arts, Art Practice (with honors) and Peace & Conflict Studies University of California, Berkeley, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2024 Beautiful Solitude, Billis Williams Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2022 Liminal Transcendence, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2021 And..., Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Fenomenal, LAUNCH LA, Los Angeles, CA 2014 Flawless, Los Gatos Beauty Bar, Los Gatos, CA 2012 Before the Leap, UP Collective, Austin, TX 2005 IB Art Senior Exhibition, Hilton Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam
SELECTED TWO-PERSON AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2024 The Cityscape Show XIV: L.A.ndscape, Billis Williams Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2024 Seattle Art Fair, Booth C04 with Billis Williams Gallery, Seattle, WA 2024 San Francisco Art Fair, Booth F05 with Billis Williams Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA 2024 A Woman’s Place, The Ebell of LA, Los Angeles, CA 2023 Architecture, Interiors, and Urban Landscapes, Not Real Art, online exhibit 2023 The Cityscape Show XIII: Close to Home, Billis Williams Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2023 Seattle Art Fair, Booth C04 with Billis Williams Gallery, Seattle, WA 2023 Art Market SF, Booth E05 with Billis Williams Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA 2023 Venice Family Clinic Art Walk & Auction, Playa Vista, CA 2022 The Cityscape Show XII: Iconic, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2022 Seattle Art Fair George Billis Gallery LA, Seattle, WA 2022 Art Market SF, Booth E07, George Billis Gallery LA, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA 2022 Venice Family Clinic Art Walk & Auction, Santa Monica, CA 2022 California Love, Cactus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2021 The Cityscape Show XI, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2021 Venice Family Clinic Art Walk & Auction, Santa Monica, CA 2020 The Cityscape Show X: Concrete and Earth, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2020 Representational Abstract 3, BG Gallery online exhibit on ARTSY 2020 In Real Life, Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2019 The Nothing That Is, Brand Art Center, Glendale, CA 2019 The Ladies Room, presented by Jen Tough Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2019 Agglomeration, Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Wishlist 6, Gabba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Los Angeles Invitational, Art Essex at George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Architectural Memory, Vedder Price & Associates with Patter Hellstrom Visual Art, Century City, CA 2018 Memories on Location, Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2017 Meet the Artists, The Pacific Art Foundation with SCAPE Jeannie Denholm & Associates Art Advisory, Newport Beach, CA 2017 5th Annual Coaster Show, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2017 Startup Art Fair, Hotel del Sol, San Francisco, CA 2017 LA Interiors & Exteriors, Pilates & Arts, Los Angeles, CA 2017 Spacial Recognition, Finishing Concepts, Los Angeles, CA 2016 She Was Just a Dream, Washington Reid Gallery, Culver City, CA 2016 4th Annual Coaster Show, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2015 Los Angeles Art Association’s 2015 Open Show, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA 2015 7th Annual 50|50 Show, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA 2015 Showcases, City Art Cooperative Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2012 Building Home, Phoenix Trades Depot, Austin, TX 2012 East of SX Showcase, UP Collective, Austin, TX 2009 Senior Exhibition, Worth Ryder Gallery, University of California, Berkeley, CA
SELECTED PRESS & PUBLICATIONS 2024 Canvas Rebel, Stories and Insights: Meet Christine Rasmussen, online interview 2023 American Art Collector, Issue 208, February 2022 Art & Cake, Christine Rasmussen: Liminal Transcendence at George Billis Gallery, exhibition review by Kristine Schomaker 2022 Exhibition catalog, “The Power of Place: Christine Rasmussen’s Urban Landscapes”, essay by Nancy Kay Turner 2022 American Art Collector, Opportunity and Grit, July Issue 201 2022 Voyage LA, Check Out Christine Rasmussen’s Story, online interview 2021 Exhibition catalog, “The Yin and Yang of Christine Rasmussen’s Recent Paintings”, essay by David S. Rubin 2021 Exhibition catalog, “Coaxing Unexpected Beauty from Industrial Architecture”, essay by Tressa Williams 2021 Not Real Art, Christine Rasmussen on Making Work at the Intersection of Belonging and Isolation, online interview 2021 2021 Among Worlds magazine, cover art, December issue 2020 ShoutOut LA, Local Stories: Christine Rasmussen, online interview 2019 Art & Cake, A Lot of Nothing Adds Up, exhibition review by Lorraine Heitzman 2019 Artillery online, Brand Library and Art Center: The Nothing That Is, exhibition review by Genie Davis 2018 Voyage LA, Check out Christine Rasmussen’s Artwork, online interview 2018 Singulart, The US painter Christine Rasmussen about femininity and boundaries, online interview 2018 Art & Cake, Dreamlike Works by Holly Elander & Christine Rasmussen, exhibition review by Genie Davis 2018 Exhibition catalog, “Phenomenal Femininity: The Art of Christine Rasmussen”, essay by Betty Ann Brown 2017 Apéro International Fine Art Catalogue, Curator Review: Beyond, November issue 2017 Modern Art Blitz, “Featured Artist Christine Rasmussen”, Episode #63
AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, SPECIAL PROJECTS 2024-23 Advisory Board Member, The Verdancy Project, Troutdale, OR 2022 Featured Artist, The Inspirational Artist Series, Art2Life Academy 2021 Grantee and Featured Artist, Culver City Arts Foundation & Helms Bakery Projecting Possibilities Grant 2021 Grantee, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Emergency Relief (AER) Fund 2020 Juror, Exhibitions Selection Committee, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA 2019 Guest Curator, Brand Art Center, “The Nothing That Is”, Glendale, CA 2017 Featured Artist, Imagery Estate Winery Artist Label Program, Glen Ellen, CA 2017 Resident, Chalk Hill Artist Residency, Healdsburg, CA