In our smaller gallery, Los Angeles-based artist Linnéa Gabriella Spransy presents recent paintings and drawings that articulate the interrelation of destruction, transformation and discovery. Spransy works in two primary, divergent media - intricate, art-deco inspired, large-scale figurative drawings in pastel on paper; and mathematical, procedurally determined abstraction in acrylic on canvas. In between, experiments in merging the two styles or working on different materials appear - but the heart of Spransy’s work is always drawing. Her hand is lithe and fluid, and renders line vibrant and dynamic. This tight survey of her dynamic practice highlights themes of exploration, discovery, and care for the collective over the individual.
Spransy’s recent large-scale works in pastel on paper revel in the exuberant transformations and interdependencies of specific plants and animals. The species she features, other than humans, often exist in a reproductive imperative that requires mature adults to sacrifice themselves for the continuation of their collective existence. This poetic melodrama for the sake of the next generation is paired with an exploration of symbiotic relationships between species, highlighting the multitude of entanglements of care that support our world. Drawn with an ornate, energetic, almost art-deco style, these works, like the relationships they describe, are exquisitely calibrated. Each living thing occupies its niche and each element is enveloped by its neighbor, making room for one another. The mortality inherent in the natural world is a force of transformation more than destruction: species like the Madagascar Suicide Palm tree may expire in their energetic effort to produce an efflorescence of over a million blooms, but it lives on, multiplied, in the uncertain fate of as many seeds. The interlocked grip of continuity and change is suffused with the glow of this central, sacred contradiction - that death and life are indivisible.
Like her drawings, Spransy’s abstract paintings are intricate and lively. The compositions are developed by following simple, procedural limits. While the rules are established ahead of time, they create a limitation that breeds discovery rather than predictive power or the ennui of omniscience. Following the mathematically determined procedure, Spransy’s painted lines form bizarre chandeliers of crystal, suggest the catacomb construction of ant colonies, the spread of cities, and the swoop of flocks, often with eerie similarity. Within each work, cycles of sudden, cataclysmic destruction and gradual regrowth test their resilience and endurance while catalyzing new forms.
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Linnéa Gabriella Spransy (b, 1976, Oconomowoc, WI) makes use of scientific and naturalistic ideas, reveling in the terror, glory and inescapable necessity of transformation. Ranging from procedural abstraction to quasi-hallucinogenic pastel drawings, Linnéa's work operates with a capacious appreciation for the multitude of transformations essential to life. Spransy received her BFA from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (2009) and an MFA from the Yale University School of Art (2001). Spransy has had recent solo exhibitions at Duke University, Durham, NC (2019); Metcalf Gallery, Taylor University, Upland, IN (2016); HUSK Gallery, London, UK (2014); Nomas Projects, Dundee, Scotland (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Brea Gallery, Brea, CA (2023); Ahmanson Gallery, Irvine, CA (2023); PRJKTLA, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Luna Anais Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Bridge Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA (2022); Wonzimer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2021); Ahmanson Gallery, Irvine, CA (2020); Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL (2015); White Flag, St. Louis, MO (2008); and Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (2007).
Spransy’s work is a part of private and public collections Stowers Research Medical Institute Collection, Kansas City, MO; Ahmanson Collection, Irvine, CA; Hallmark Corporation, Kansas City, MO; and the Madison Contemporary Art Museum Collection, Madison, WI. She is a recipient of the Art thru Architecture Award (2009); the Viewing Program/The Drawing Center Award (2004); Wisconsin Triennial Grant/Purchase Award (2002); the Yale Grant: Carol Schlosberg Memorial Prize (2001); the Yale Grant: Harper Residency at Vermont Studio Center (2001); the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant (1998); and a MIAD Full-Tuition Scholarship (1994). Spransy lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.