Dianna Molzan

The eight new paintings in Dianna Molzan’s exhibition Fizzz present an energetic universe of active forms, supernatural hues, and extra-sensorial textures. The individual works perform a vocabulary that extends the notions of paintings possibilities: soft, rigid, wavy, lank, loose, stiff, jagged, droopy, raw, toothy. With their emphasis on heavy textures, graphic lines, and simple geometries, the paintings possess a playful, almost comic energy. Abstract forms evoke lightning bolts and mechanical parts; patterns and surfaces recall architectural or cultural motifs; shadows seep from edges or float lightly; while suggestions of monster features and super natural objects appear throughout the works.

Though a subtle humor bubbles to the surface, the works remain deeply engaged in painterly concerns, presenting tensions and confusion between surface and figure ground relationships, space as presence or absence, and experiments with gesture, improvisation and precision. The hand and the handmade are ever present with several works expanding Molzan’s use of unraveled canvas string, exposed stretcher bars, and sculptural surfaces.

Molzan’s architectural interventions in the gallery – the addition of two free-standing walls and the transformation of the ceiling with a subtle shade of sky blue, direct the viewer’s eyes and movements through the space in unexpected ways, drawing formal and conceptual connections between the works and creating more intimate experiences and a heightened sensitivity with them individually. In Fizzz, Molzan uses her paintings to gas the waters of our contemporary moment, staking a strong claim for the seriousness of play and the power of joy.

Dianna Molzan lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Solo exhibitions of her work include Hubris, Pubis, Scatis, Kaufman Repetto, NY (2018); Usurpico, Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles (2017); La Jennifer, Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles (2013); Grand Tourist, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2012); and Bologna Meissen, Whitney Museum of Art, New York (2011). Selected group exhibitions include Give and Take: Highlighting Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018); Shaping the Canvas: Lucio Fontana, Nicholas Hlobo, Dianna Molzan, Blair Thurman, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm (2018); The Conscientious Objector, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2018); No Man’s Land, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (2016); The Campaign for Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2016); The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, Museum of Modern Art, NY (2014); Expanding the Field of Painting, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2013); Painter Painter, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2013); and All of this and nothing, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011). The artist’s first monograph is forthcoming this year from Midgramme. This is Molzan’s second exhibition at the gallery.

Molzan’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; among others.