Jylian Gustlin

Description

Donna Seager Gallery opens the fall season with Jylian Gustlin : rara avis in an exhibition of new paintings. The exhibition runs from September 2 through October 13. There will be a public reception for the artist on Saturday, September 18 from 6 to 8pm.

Jylian Gustlin is a rare artist. Thus the title of her one person exhibition at Donna Seager Gallery, rara avis: a rare bird, an unusual person. Her complex and layered paintings give glimpses into a process that moves with great facility between right brain and left brain. The works draw us in with their rich patterns of shape and color and lead us to an ambiguous landscape where figures stand, sit or dance within the charged atmosphere created by the artist. Jylian is a true bay area painter in a contemporary redefining of what that means. Raised in the San Francisco area and shaped by the technology explosion of Silicon Valley, Gustlin brings a new sensibility to Bay Area figuration. With her background in computer science and mathematics, she has a heightened understanding of how studying patterns and layers on the computer screen helps her to lay down the bones of a painting while remaining loose enough to maintain an organic and painterly presence.

Mathematics and painting seem to correspond to diametrically opposed tendencies of the human mind, but Gustlin understands both as highly creative pursuits. These paintings ring true. They have a compositional framework that the artist is able to move freely within. She is interested in rhythm and sequence as in her Fibonacci series, named for the pattern in nature discovered by the 13th century mathematician Leonardo Pisano. Not disconnected from that is her interest in proportion which was studied by Leonardo daVinci in his Vitruvian Man which incorporated the “golden rectangle”, a ratio that was found by Pisano in his series of numbers. This fascinating incorporation of classical proportion, modern technology and refined color sense give Jylian Gustlin’s work a sophisticated presence.

Jylian Gustlin is a native Californian. She characterizes her upbringing as “idyllic” and remains close to her parents, three siblings and the nieces and nephews she refers to as “my kids”. Both of her parents worked in technology and encouraged their children to pursue their interests. The kids wrote plays and designed costumes and followed their creative and athletic pursuits. Gustlin is also an avid runner. Some of her figurative work makes reference to the lone figure in changeable landscapes. In her ad infinitum series¸ tall verticals and in cool blues and golds suggest the sensation of running through a new growth forest.

Gustlin was just short of a computer science degree when she turned to art instead, getting her BFA from the Academy of Art University. Ironically, after moving from computer science to art, Gustlin discovered that she enjoyed both. She landed a job with Apple Computer, Inc. as a graphics programmer while she continued making art. Being a part of intelligent creative teams was great fun for her, but her facility with design on the computer made her fingers itch to convert ideas into paintings. She brings the same intelligence and experimental spirit to her work that she did to finding creative solutions on the edge of technology. She has worked with a variety of materials and has found that by using resin, she is able to create a window into her experimentations with oil, wax, acrylic, gold leaf and graphite.

It has been nearly ten years since Gustlin took the leap to being a full time artist. Her very first exhibition in 2001 was a resounding success and she has done well ever since. She has work in galleries in New York, Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina and Canada. She was highly successful in the recent San Francisco International Art Fair and will be shown in Miami in December when the gallery participates in the Aqua Art Fair.

Gustlin is indeed a rare bird. In pushing her medium forward, she has developed the thumbprint that distinguishes her from other artists. Her paintings have a complex critical tension, often moody and exuberant at the same time. She is enthusiastic and serious, playful and reflective. She cannot be defined by stereotypes and flies by her own instincts, guided by intelligence and discipline.

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