SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Maritta Tapanainen’s collages and David Fought’s sculptures at first glance could not be more different. Yet both artists, as they examine form and line and the space between, engage us in the conversation.

The sculptures by David Fought present an abstract architecture of form, volume, line, and surface. The planes we are asked to consider and examine swoop, converge, and coalesce into beautiful monochromatic fields interrupted at perfect intervals by the rudeness of a gorgeous bit of rust.

The metal rods make lines that focus our attention on the armature and framework of the sculpture, at the same time lending support and definition to the plaster.

Maritta Tapanainen’s collages stand in startling contrast to the Fought sculptures, yet they both share an abstraction ethos. These abstractions by Fought and Tapanainen bring to our eyes an idea of Agnes Martin’s explorations. Specifically as we examine their surfaces, both works begin to approach color field paintings.

Maritta Tapanainen’s collages stand in startling contrast to the Fought sculptures, yet they both share an abstraction ethos. These abstractions by Fought and Tapanainen bring to our eyes an idea of Agnes Martin’s explorations. Specifically as we examine their surfaces, both works begin to approach color field paintings.

David Fought:

I bend metal rod into geometric shapes--triangles, circles, curved rectangles--then fill negative spaces with plaster to explore the mysterious interplay of natural forces, how primal elements cohere into patterns and forms.

Underived from drawings or photographs, these objects arise from my engagement with the physical world and desire to uncover the authentic object. Observing what’s at hand--concrete rain gutters, steel girders supporting a freeway, a dental molar extracted during childhood, the flow of a creek broken by rocks--I'm not interested in a story or explanation, but how these phenomena create a moment of visual quietness.

Agnes Martin said her paintings are not about what’s seen but what’s known forever in the mind. Similarly, I study surfaces to divine what's underneath, to understand what gives objects their presence, to discover what invites us inside--to look and re-look at the object and find its simple gesture. Both rough-hewn and diaphanous, recognizable yet unknown, these works become more aware, more expressive of themselves. They may even seem to breathe.

Maritta Tapanainen:

These works consist of a subtle interplay between intricately collaged micro-structures and deep green turn-of-the-century endpages detailed with a floral engrave – a millefleur motif – existent with an elusive filigree overprint of sinuous silvery twined fronds. Surfacing this groundcover – this artifice of nature – are collages formed of fragmented paper cuttings which integrate into or disturb the ornate substratum dissolving as shimmering apparitions to appear disappear reappear. Camouflage-like, the appearance perceptibly alters under lighting and the viewer’s position, displaying a dual character fleetingly revealed or hidden. Wavering on the edge of visibility – finely slivered bits, hairs width strands, delicate gossamer webbing, and concentrations of pinpoint granules, converge to disperse in subliminal murmuration – a hue redolent of the elegance of currency and alluding to the enchantment of Indian miniatures if only in size and intricacy.

These small works are paired in contrast with larger collages from 2010, both series portray illumination whether emerging from darkness as in the latter or from a shimmering surface of the recent collages. They are of a continuum. Of those presented in this exhibition, Out There would be among the most sizable collages endeavored to date.

An invented, inverted space-scape glows on a black field of seemingly electrified synapses conjured by crumplage – night is observed as a freewheeling fantastic array of luminous globules or modules – replicating microbes, spirulina tangles, eccentric architecture, sputnik junk, all-seeing orbs, fuzzy black holes, matrix honeycombs, astro fungi, anthropomorphic allusions, carnival neon, other suns, stars, starscapes coalesce – inserting here and there, a tip of the hat to the whimsy of Klee and to surrealist play and iconography.

I was born in Finland, grew up in Canada and have since lived in Europe, Central America and for a time, in the raw, expansive beauty of the Mojave desert. I travel when possible – journeys of inspiring encounters have infused an awareness and respect for a variety of cultural experiences enriching my vision and contributing to my approach to collage. I currently live in Santa Monica, California.

Over the course of her career, Tapanainen was represented by Couturier Gallery, LA from 1995 until its closure in 2018 and by Pavel Zoubok Gallery, NY from 2005–2017. In 2008 she had a solo exhibition at the Fresno Art Museum.

Tapanainen was an artist-in-residence at The LUCID Art Foundation Residency in 2023, a recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants 2004 and 2007. Her work is in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (mfa), The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Crocker Art Museum, The LUCID Art Foundation, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Mia), Beth Rudin DeWoody, Fondation Galila Barzilaï-Hollander, and numerous other collections. Her collages have been presented at numerous art fairs and events: The ADAA Art Show, Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Houston Fine Art Fair, CA Boom–Dwell on Design Los Angeles, Pulse Art Fair (Miami and New York), LA Art Show, Works on Paper–The Park Avenue Armory.

Tapanainen has exhibited nationally in the U.S. including touring exhibitions with the International Collage Center, and internationally in London, UK and Nagoya and Gifu City, Japan. Her collages were highlighted in The West Marin Review (Vol 10, 2021), showcased in Posit – A Journal of Literature & Art (Vol 21, 2019), and in the Paris Review Spring Portfolio (2011). Solo exhibitions have received favorable reviews in the Los Angeles Times, Art Forum and other publications.