Katie Herzog

28 September - 4 November, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, 29 September, 6-8PM

katie herzog

PawnShop is pleased to present new works by L.A. based artist, Katie Herzog. Soft Philosophy is Herzog’s first solo show, presenting a series of works produced during and since her recent residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

Katie Herzog’s paintings demonstrate wit and a depth of thought through slight brushstrokes, a delicate palette and subtle theoretical juxtapositions of the personal and the universal.

From the theories of Lacan, filtered through the traditions of the West Coast sensibility, her paintings serve as a biography of the modern collective psyche; one that is at odds with the both the world and the self, and yet is still able to achieve moments of the sublime and states of pleasurable bliss. Herzog tells a serious joke; her paintings intersect darkness and humor with the absurd and the familiar.

Herzog graduated with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and an MFA from UC San Diego in 2005. She is currently studying Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

Recent exhibitions include The Greatest Generation at Circus Gallery, In This House That I Call Home at Western Project, and On Transit: Visual Narratives in North America at the Instituto de Cultura in Mexicali.

PawnShop is a brand new gallery and project space in Westwood (2 blocks from the Hammer Museum). In addition to a program of exhibitions, it invites and presents an ongoing acquisitions policy for artists and curators, allowing viewers to identify and face the challenges of confining art to a traditional gallery space. PawnShop aspires to push the boundaries of the white cube; a colloquial space where audience, artists, and curators alike can pawn their concepts and ideas to all who enter.

soft philosophy