ANDREA MARIE BREILING | STRETCHIN' IT OUT
May 2 - May 30, 2015

OPENING: May 2, 2015 |  6pm - 8pm

PREVIEW: April 30 - May 1, 2015

Sonce Alexander Gallery is proud to present Stretchin’ It Out, Andrea Marie Breiling’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

 Playfully embracing the tension between discipline and improvisation, Andrea Marie Breiling attempts to reclaim painting from the historical patriarchy of abstract expressionism and explores the medium as an important part of feminist art practice. Forgoing deconstruction for optimism, Breiling pursues the infinite possibilities of the medium by inviting immersive viewing: spurring surprise, excitement, and pleasure.

 “I create the platform from which I see imagined — a raw, funky, colored, humanistic, purposely handmade world. I want the work to live on the cusp of dangerously looking ephemeral and yet well crafted to an unexpected level. I must ‘Stretch It Out’ to find a new unknown, to create work that is raw and colorful.”
— Andrea Marie Breiling

 Integrating surrounding spaces into her practice, Breiling’s new works are distinguished by an emphasis on relational tactility. Utilizing materials such as plastic wrapping for store-bought canvases, plastic drop cloths, found objects, repurposed-old paintings, pleather, oil, acrylics, aerosol spray, and liquid latex, Breiling makes clear the status of the paintings as the product of human hands. As demonstrated in her works, these materials not only build texture but are used to create a tension between the stretch of the plastic itself, and the delicacy of the materials as they merge together into an organized system. It is these subtle shifts that invite moments of chaotic slippage and fragility in Breiling’s practice, embracing internal tensions and contradictions.

 Andrea Marie Breiling received her MFA from Claremont Graduate University (2014) and BFA from University of California, Irvine (2006). Selected exhibitions including: Dallas Art Fair 2015; Torrance Art Museum; Peggy Phelps Gallery; Santa Monica Art Studios; 2014 & 2013 G.L.A.M.F.A. (Greater Los Angeles Masters of Fine Art). Breiling’s work has been published in Fresh Paint and New American Painting. She is a co-founder of the queer-feminist performance collective Skunkworks, a 2014 recipient of Albert B. Friedman Grant, with performances including: 2013 G.L.A.M.F.A.; The Arcade; Perform Chinatown; Mark Moore Gallery. Breiling is represented by Galleri Urbane in Dallas, TX, and Sonce Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.    

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