FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 21, 2007

Welcome Home is a multi-media, group exhibition that explores the idea of home as refuge

Exhibition dates: March 24 to April 28, 2007
Reception/house warming: Saturday, March 31, 7 to 9p
Gallery hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 12noon to 6p

ARENA 1 Gallery — A project of Santa Monica Art Studios
3026 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405
www.santamonicaartstudios.com

Press/exhibition inquiries:

Ashley McLean Emenegger, curator
Phone: 626.799.1369
Mobile: 310.433.4248
E-mail: ashley@mcleanfineart.com

Santa Monica, California — ARENA 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, presents Welcome Home, a multi-media group exhibition that explores the idea of home as refuge. The artwork is whimsical, nostalgic, idealistic, fantastical, comfortable, haunting, accented by domesticity, identity, or just the coziness of the familiar.

Featured artists include:

Mimi Drop
Asuka Hisa
Mary Jean Mallman
Mery Lynn McCorkle
Phranc
Erin Kellgren Temple
Kim Tucker
Jennifer Vanderpool
Luke Whitlatch
Leslie Yagar

With all life's intensity, we cannot deny a yearning for respite. Our world is constantly buzzing. In our day-to-day we juggle umpteen things to manage, relish, consider, and negotiate. Radio and TV reports don't paint a pretty picture of our world — the news is seldom sweet. We need some sense of stillness, a place where we can just turn it all off; a retreat from the outside — a place we can turn inward. Ideally that is home.

When one says they feel at home, they mean they feel safe, comfortable, at ease. Coming home provides a sacred reprieve from the tiresomeness trek that is the outside world. We kick off our shoes, put on comfy sweats, and exchange the go-go-go for precious moments of solace or regrouping with our loved ones. At home we are surrounded by the things that provide our sense of self. We invite friends into our home to share our world. Or sometimes we are blissfully alone in our space with no white noise other than the hum of the refrigerator or the seduction of a good book. We are fortified by our loved ones, our stuff, or our favorite slippers — Welcome Home.

Mimi Drop's photos depict the commercialization of "home" in Dwell Magazine meets Uta Barth images of mini-domestic settings. Asuka Hisa explores moments of blithe nonchalance with her mixed-media collages and drawings featuring people and abstract forms. Mary Jean Mallman's intimate watercolors are observations of the manmade landscape of Los Angeles; banal objects rendered with regard. Mery Lynn McCorkle traces shadows and covers them with patterns of fabrics in homage to the summers she and her family spent in Biloxi, Mississippi, still in ruin after Katrina. Phranc cobbles the comforts of making yourself at home out of cardboard and paper fabric. Erin Kellgren Temple's shadowy paintings on glass present the facades of homes in her neighborhood, depicting a sense of belonging amongst the diversity of LA's economic stratum. Kim Tucker translates the moments beyond the choreographed photographs painted on her collection of found china. Jennifer Vanderpool's multi-media installation both celebrates and confronts the idealized notion of the "domestic goddess". Luke Whitlatch's paintings translate poignant life passages through formal abstractions on canvas. Leslie Yagar stitches portraits of birds spotted around her own home, captured through her exquisite drawings in thread.

ARENA 1 is an exhibition space founded by Santa Monica Art Studios directors Yossi Govrin and Sherry Frumkin. Based in an historic hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, ARENA 1 invites internationally known as well as newly established curators to develop innovative and compelling exhibitions.

Ashley McLean Emenegger is an independent curator and founder of McLean Fine Art. Her fine art and video exhibitions have been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, the LA Business Journal, and Artweek.

Media contacts: Ashley Mclean Emenegger, Mclean Fine Art, 626.799.1369