Christine Rasmussen
Liminal Transcendence
Pictured on cover: Brief but Brilliant, 2022, oil on canvas, 24x30 inches
CHRISTINE RASMUSSEN LIMINAL TRANSCENDENCE
This series is about discovering moments of wonder in ordinary places. Each painting depicts a view from a parking lot – including the “parking lots” of traffic jams – oriented towards the grandeur of the sky.
“Liminal” continues my exploration of the in between. Parking lots, a main subject in the work, are threshold spaces, neither here nor there, and rarely a starting point or destination. Ephemeral skies change at the pace of life. The paintings are windows to and pauses in these transitory spaces. While based on real places, I play with color and composition to create an invented space and sky, somewhere between real and imagined, a viewfinder into another world.
Transforming an unremarkable place can lead to a moment of transcendence. When I moved to the car culture of Los Angeles, I invented a “treasure hunt” to counteract my feelings of overstimulation - pausing at destinations to take a beat and immerse myself in the surroundings. In appreciating a ray of light casting a facade into sharp relief, sky drawings made by jet streams, or Lego-like geometry of distant buildings, I found my mood lifted. Paying attention to the present moment allows for a mental shift away from anxiety towards curiosity and wonder.
While whimsical, these paintings are not glib. Life’s somber realities are recognized in subtle undercurrents – a lingering rain cloud, the ambiguity of time of day, an asymmetrical composition. The absence of people, cars or signage. Rather than creating a void, this opens up space for the viewer to enter. These paintings are invitations to lose oneself in moments of solitude and reflection, and to then engage in life with new eyes, seeking out wonder anywhere.
Christine Rasmussen
October 2022
Los Angeles, CA
Brief but Brilliant, 2022 oil on canvas
24x30 inches
The Power of Place: Christine Rasmussen’s Urban Landscapes
by Nancy Kay TurnerChristine Rasmussen’s compelling body of paintings, aptly entitled “Liminal Transcendence,” cleverly references California’s much vaunted car culture by situating the viewer in an unseen parking lot or structure facing outward towards bleak streets, anonymous architecture and painted over graffitied, corrugated metal security fences and walls. Paradoxically, these paintings are both acutely observed and seemingly invented, existing at the threshold between, as Rasmussen says in her artist statement, “the real and the imagined.” Rasmussen masterfully orchestrates this ambiguity and in doing so transforms the mundane into the mysterious, the ordinary into the extraordinary.
“View From The Parking Lot,” is reminiscent of De Chirico’s iconic surreal painting, “Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street,” with its unexpected tilted perspective, highly delineated shadows, virtually deserted streets and generic architecture, except that Rasmussen suffuses her street scene with crisp California light under a cloudless blue sky, and surrounded by cheeky bubble gum pink walls.
Looming barriers and fences play an important role here, as in “Shadowed Serenity.” The hard surfaces of asphalt, concrete, corrugated metal, and wood contrast with the soft, velvety cotton candy-colored clouds drifting lazily in the sky. One acutely feels the tension between the claustrophobic feel of the fenced-in area versus the freedom of the open spaces beyond the wall. Wooden poles rise like urban tree substitutes. Instead of sun dappled on a wall, one sees layers of paint erasing unwanted graffiti - an urban jungle indeed. One remembers Robert Frost’s famous line “…something there is that doesn’t love a wall….”
In “Jet Stream Horizon” the sky becomes a character providing a refuge and a retreat for the viewer. Eventually the serenely beautiful skyscape takes center stage, eclipsing industrial buildings which are reduced to a colorful strip residing near the bottom of the painting. Here Rasmussen elegantly manipulates both abstraction and figuration, almost turning this into a color field painting. The poetic and dreamy “Cloud Jikan” features the setting sun as it lights up the sky one last time. A lonely small gray cloud drifts by. Beautifully nuanced coloration ranges from the sizzling but fading orange into a lilac infused blue. One reluctantly brings one’s gaze down to the wall -- security light and razor wire. Back to gritty reality. The unusual composition, relentlessly vertical, makes this a sublime frozen moment captured forever.
In “Archil Threshold,” Rasmussen frames the view through an opening, reinforcing the notion of being caught between two spaces - being inside and outside at the same time. Desert colors reminiscent of O’Keefe’s landscapes dominate here as well - the pastel blue sky crisscrossed with white clouds, the weathered grayed teal blue painted aluminum and the sharp pink shard of light streaming in. This body of work was begun in 2020 during the pandemic where all life as we know it seemed suspended, as if we were all just holding our collective breath. Rasmussen captures this time of uncertainty with both clarity and elegance, willing the viewer to stand still long enough to cherish the beauty all around us.
Nancy Kay Turner, Pasadena, CA.
Last
One
Dance (in this parking lot), 2022 oil on canvas 40x30 inches
Cloud Jikan, 2022 oil on canvas
36x18 inches
Jet Stream Horizon, 2022 oil on canvas
30x40 inches
Dreams Linger, 2022
oil on linen
20x26 inches
Private Collection
Archil Threshold, 2022 oil on canvas
24x30 inches
Azure and Salmon, 2020 oil on canvas
48x60 inches
View from the Parking Lot, 2022 oil on canvas 30x40 inches
Sundown, 2022
oil on canvas
12x24 inches
Private Collection
40x20 inches
Private Collection
Magenta Interlude, 2021 oil on linen
The Blindness of Noon, 2022 oil on canvas 30x24 inches
Shadowed Serenity, 2021 oil on canvas 40x30 inches
20x24
Brilliant Passage, 2020 oil on canvas
inches
CHRISTINE RASMUSSEN
b. 1987 - Karachi, Pakistan Works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
2009 Bachelor of Arts, Art Practice (with honors) and Peace & Conflict Studies University of California, Berkeley, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
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
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 with 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
2022 Art & Cake, Christine Rasmussen: Liminal Transcendence at George Billis Gallery, exhibition review by Kristine Schomaker
2022 American Art Collector, Opportunity and Grit, July issue
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 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
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