REVIEW

This and That: The Aesthetics of Otherness

A review of Virginia Lukei's Heavenly Bodies in Parallel Universes

"Virginia Lukei's images are full of dualities. Figures appear to be floating and transcendent within the confines of the pool. Reflections and refractions fragment the bodies yet their immersion in the pool also hints at a womblike and peaceful state. The figures are unified by shared environment, yet, with strangely limited physical contact, they carry a sense of isolation. This causes the viewer to focus on the spaces between the figures, which become equally substantive, creating a universe intimate and infinite, cosmic and corporeal.

Her most intriguing paintings are at once representational and abstract, recognizable figures transforming into swirls of color as the bodies break the surface of the water generating energized reflections to the viewers below. Paintings appear to capture figures at the moment before they completely fragment, a last moment of order before chaos triumphs. But this moment of clarity on the verge of chaos hints at a greater truth, the state in which we all exist. Elements of chance, universality, transformation are all present in this elegant, poetic, rhythmic dance, the complex interconnected tissues of the shared experience of life.

Virginia strongly believes in this interconnectivity, that actions, thoughts and even mere existence cause a ripple effect through the universe, and that those keen enough to recognize this cause and effect can channel it in tangible ways. These paintings require the viewer to complete them. Heisenberg would argue that there can be no passive voyeurism, that the observer always plays an active role and produces an effect through his presence. While this principle is usually applied to scientific observation it also seems applicable to these paintings which seem to reach beyond the picture plane to transform the viewer into a participant.

In some ways Virginia's work is analogous to Spencer Tunick's. Both artists encourage others to become willing participants in an illegal nude performance. Both artists direct the action, indicate when and how to pose, and capture the soul of the event through photography. In Tunick's case, this is the end game. For Lukei, the process has just begun. She then paints from her orchestrated photographs, creating layers of separation between the scene and the viewer. The moment of immersion, a photograph capturing the moment, and the reworking of the scene in paint are all parallel universes in Lukei's vision.

The mystique and glamour of California (swimming pool) culture enhances this notion of a separate reality. David Hockney documented this culture in his early swimming pool photographs and paintings that objectified his models through a stylistic application of color, a fundamental love of abstraction and more than a bit of homoeroticism. Lukei probes deeper into the blue ether as her models float in anonymity at the edge of the chasm that separates the immersed from the emergent. The water's surface tension becomes the dividing line between her parallel universes and we watch as some of the bodies break through to the other side. We are voyeurs in a womb observing the births of new souls."

Larry and Debby Kline
Independent Curators

SHOWS & EXHIBITS

1999 - 2009 Inclusion / Exclusion and Distribution Documentation Project: a guerrilla installation of cones at the Carlsbad, Vista, Encinitas, La Jolla, La Mesa libraries, CA

2004-2008 commission work: paintings and mosaics
2002 Parallel Universes Nude Photo Shoot at Mimosa West, Escondido
2001 "Cones and Boxes", One Woman Show, Solana Beach city hall
2000 2000 Northern National Art Competition, Nicolet College Gallery, Rhinelander, WI
2000 120th Del Mar Exhibition, Del Mar, CA - 1st and 3rd Place
2000 "Made in California," Regional Exhibit, City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA - 1st Place
1999 "Inclusion/Exclusion", Two Woman Show Mira Costa College, Oceanside, CA
1999 1st Annual Juried Exhibition-Regional Artists, William D. Cannon Gallery, Carlsbad, CA
1999 119th Palos Verdes Art Center Juried All Media Exhibition, Palos Verdes, CA
1998 Oceanside Museum of Art Juried Exhibition, Oceanside, CA
1998 San Bernardino County Museum 33rd Annual Open Exhibition, Redlands, CA
1998 "Lead into Gold," John F. Kennedy University Arts & Consciousness Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1998 "Art Riot," Escondido Municipal Gallery, Escondido, CA - Honorable Mention
1998 "Without Beginning, Without End," Group Show, New Alchemy Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1998 "About Faces," Escondido Municipal Gallery, Escondido, CA - 2nd Place
1997 "Sense and Sensuality," Museum of Arts Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
1997 "Echoes and Visions," Inaugural Fine Art Show, Laguna Niguel, CA
1996 Orange County Center for Contemporary Art 14th Annual Juried Exhibition, Santa Ana, CA
1996 San Bernardino County Museum 31st Annual Open Exhibition, Redlands, CA - Winsor Newton Award
1996 11th Annual Wallworks, L.A. Artcore, Los Angeles, CA
1996 Long Beach Arts, 93rd Juried Exhibition, Long Beach, CA
1996 Athenaeum 5th Annual Juried Exhibition, La Jolla, CA
1995 115th Del Mar Exhibition, Del Mar, CA - 3rd Place
1994 "Return To Art," One Woman Show, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
1982 "Abridged Versions," One Woman Show, San Diego, CA
1981 Carlsbad and Oceanside Art League, Carlsbad, CA
1980 Carlsbad and Oceanside Art League, Carlsbad, CA