EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Other Places: An Exploration of Landscapes Andrew Dickson, Jonathan Puls and Yu Ji September 12 – October 15
Other Places
About the Exhibition This exhibition, Other Places, showcases landscape paintings focused on views of places containing subtle and complex relationships of nature and culture. Scenes of National Parks, drought endangered coastal forests, or the inadvertently manmade Salton Sea offer spaces for reflection on the paradoxical beauty and fragility of natural spaces, and the interdependency between the natural world and shaping human activity. Other Places is comprised of works revealing contrasting relationships of subjects, types of motifs, and formal solutions by three established artists, all of whom serve as faculty members at local universities. Other Places creates the opportunity to consider and reconsider our relationships to landscape subjects with a range of traditional and less conventional motifs represented in the exhibition. The exhibited works share the first person perspective of recorded observations. The participating artists are Andrew Dickson (Professor of Drawing and Painting at Cal State Fullerton), Yu Ji (Professor of Drawing and Painting at Cal State Long Beach), and Jonathan Puls (Professor of Drawing and Painting at Biola University). "Having shown our urban focused work together on several occasions in the past few years, Yu Ji, Andy Dickson and I are excited to exhibit our works that concentrate on primarily natural spaces," said exhibiting artist and curator Jonathan Puls. "Our works offer contrasting responses to the landscape, despite retaining a great deal of affinity. This exhibition is another demonstration of the inexhaustibility of rational seeing and of the individuality of each person's response to world around us."
About the ArtExchange Founded in 2002, the ArtExchange (ArtX) is a community visual arts center, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is defined by its studio artists, gallery, creative programming, and special events. ArtX provides opportunities for diverse audiences to discover art through creative, thought-provoking experiences. For more information, please visit: artexchangelb.org
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Other Places
About Andrew Dickson At an early age, Andrew Dickson was involved in art and spent hours drawing from imagination. His mother Annette Dickson is an accomplished wildlife painter, and through her he became acquainted with noted landscape painters Milford Zornes and Joella Mahoney. After attending a painting workshop with Zornes, Andrew was inspired to pursue a career in art with conviction. With little formal training, over the course of a year, he began a daily routine of painting outdoors in pastels along the coastline of the Monterey Peninsula where he grew up. During that time he benefited from the critical feedback and encouragement of professional artist and award winning filmmaker Rick Harper. Not long after, Andrew was accepted into the graduate program at California State University, Long Beach where he completed his MFA. At Long Beach, Andrew had the unique privilege to study drawing and painting with Domenic Cretara and his graduate committee chair, Yu Ji (a former student and teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing). Andrew’s aesthetic ideas and studio practice were profoundly influenced by these two teachers who both emphasized the significance of drawing from life. Andrew exhibits his art regionally and nationally and his work has been shown at the Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA; The Fisher Museum of Art at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; Wright State University, Dayton OH; Manifest Creative Research Center, Cincinnati, OH; The College of the Sequoias, Visalia, CA; Merced College, Merced CA; and The Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA. Andrew’s paintings of the industrial landscape of the Port of Long Beach were the subject of a feature article in American Artist Magazine. Andrew is also an Artist member of the California Art Club and exhibits with them regularly. Much of Andrew’s work can be characterized by a focus on ordinary and unusual locations that are often overlooked. For the past several years he has developed a body of work on the landscape of the Salton Sea and has been involved with several group shows and publications related to this area including an exhibition at The Salton Sea Museum, articles in Palm Springs Life Magazine and Outdoor Painter Magazine, along with multiple images published in a book titled Valley of the Ancient Lake.
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Other Places The majority of Andrew's paintings and drawings are created on location from observation. His studio works are usually developed from careful drawing studies and color sketches painted from life. Andrew rarely uses photography as a reference for his work as he values the personal experience, and vast artistic possibilities that can be uncovered by working from life. He has taught drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach and Huntington University in Indiana. Andrew currently works as an Associate Professor of Foundation Painting at California State University, Fullerton. He has also served as a CSU Summer Arts Course Coordinator for six years and currently coordinates the Summer Art’s Drawing and Painting courses in Florence, Italy. In his teaching, Andrew is committed to providing a fundamental understanding of the concepts, materials, and methods of painting with an emphasis on clear visual perception. Andrew, his wife and three children reside in the California Heights neighborhood of Long Beach.
List of Works by Andrew Dickson Bombay Beach Sunset oil on canvas, 2014, 36” x 24” NFS
North Shore Sunrise oil on canvas, 2015, 16” x 12” $1,450
Toro Loco Morning oil on canvas, 2013, 30” x 14” $2,400
Yellow Brush near Sea oil on panel, 2014, 18” x 12” $1,600
Toro Loco Sunset oil on canvas, 2014, 30” x 15” $2,200
Silver Sunset Sea oil on panel, 2014, 18” x 12” $1,450
North Shore Real Estate oil on canvas, 2012, 24” x 18” $1,850
Pull Thrus oil on panel, 2014, 12” x 12” $1,100
Mid day at the State Park oil on canvas, 2012, 36” x 20” $3,200
Bombay Sunset with Chocolate Mountains oil on canvas, 2012, 16” x 16” $1,250
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Other Places
About Jonathan Puls A native of southern California, Jonathan Puls holds both an M.F.A. in painting (2002), and an M.A. in Art (Art History Concentration, 2013) from California State University, Long Beach. Since 2005, Puls has served on the faculty of Biola University, teaching drawing, painting, and art history courses. Professor Puls has exhibited his drawings and paintings at several regional venues, and has enjoyed frequent guest lecturing and curatorial work. His own work takes up the traditional painting subjects of landscape, portraiture, and multi-figure compositions. His subject matter is most often cultivated through drawings and done from direct observation. His family members, friends, students, and the places he knows well, all serve as the primary subjects of his work. List of Works by Jonathan Puls McNally Campus, Late Afternoon oil on canvas, 2015 $2200
June Gloom, Arroyo Pescadero oil on panel, 2015 $600
Arroyo Pescadero, Looking South oil on canvas, 2011 $2500
Window View, Cambria oil on panel, 2015 $600
Olive Grove, Morning oil on canvas, 2015 $2000
Cambria Study oil on panel, 2014 $600
Cambria Pines in Drought oil on linen, 2014 $1100
Dead Bushes, Arroyo Pescadero watercolor on paper, 2013 $750
Pepper Trees oil on canvas, 2013 $1700
Study of Pepper Trees watercolor on paper, 2013 $750
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Other Places
About Yu Ji Yu Ji, a figurative painter, has been working on a pictorial theme in artwork exploring images of contemporary urban life. Through compositions of depicting multiple human figures of racially mixed social groups situated in urban environment, he has been engaged in the studio process of painted form. Graduated from Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, China, he had his MFA degrees (1986 painting and 1989 printmaking) from State University of New York at New Paltz. He was a recipient of the La Napoule scholarships (1985 France and 1986 New Hampshire), and the Charles H. Revson fellowship (1986-87, New York Studio School). As a studio painter, Yu Ji concentrates on a figurative approach to painted form and explore images of contemporary urban life. He has received grants from the Utah Arts Council, Illinois Arts Council, Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, and the Beverly G. Alpay Artist Grant from Palo Verde Art Center for his urban studies. Yu Ji has exhibited in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and in Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou. Among both public and private collections, Yu Ji’s Portrait of Sir James Mirrlees is in the permanent collection of Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Yu Ji's university tenure includes teaching positions at China’s Central Academy of Fine Art, Southern Utah University and Eastern Illinois University. He is now a professor teaching life drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach.
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Other Places
List of Works by Yu Ji Fort Ord –Overseeing the Open Lot oil on canvas, 2013, 18” X 24” $2800
Seaside in Morning oil on board, 2015, 12” X 6” $450
Route US 1 Towards Santa Cruz oil on canvas, 2013, 28” X 22” $3000
Barracks in Sunset oil on board, 2015, 8” X 8” $300
Salton Sea oil on canvas, 2012, 16” X 12” $1600
Barracks in Fresh Air oil on board, 2015, 8” X 8” $300
Sunset Salton Sea oil on canvas, 2012, 10” X 8” $300
Barracks of Fort Ord oil on board, 2013, 6” X 8” $300
Evening Light at Seaside oil on board, 2015, 10” X 6” $450
Evening Light oil on board, 2013, 8 X 10” $350
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