exhibitions

for immediate release

SIMONE LOURENÇO: "IN BLOOM"
MAY 17 - JUNE 21, 2008

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 17, 2008; 7-10PM

OVERTONES gallery is pleased to present recent work by New York-based artist SIMONE LOURENÇO.

Simone Lourenço's art draws inspiration from the abundance of the natural world. She creates space with collages and excises parts to build on line and detail with the intent to capture the movement of growth and infiniteness in plant and animal life. Simone's pieces bring forth the joy of looking and invite the viewer to suspend logical thinking and simply surrender to beauty.
In the teachings of Zen, the Buddha is said to have given a "silent sermon" during which he held a flower and gazed at it. After a while, one of the present monks, Mahakasyapa, began to smile. This monk is said to have been the only one who had understood the sermon. According to legend, that smile--or, that realization--was handed down by twenty-eight successive masters and much later became the origin of Zen.
Much like in this ancient story from the teachings of Zen, the experience of viewing Simone's art is a practice in looking--while suspending the every-day noise of the mind and basking in the dense colors and elegant shapes of the pieces. Simone's work offers an honest and authentic vision of optimism and hope, one that humanity would most certainly benefit from embracing.

OVERTONES is a contemporary Los Angeles art gallery with an exhibition programme that strives to intertwine beauty and social action, and reach out beyond the confines of established art-world structures in an effort to engage a wide range of audiences.

+ For additional information and images please contact Elizabeta Betinski at word@overtonesgallery.com or 310.915.0346

• Back to Exhibition Photos