June 14 – July 26, 2008

Opening reception: June 14, 6–8 pm

Artist Talk: 6:30 pm

Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce our second solo exhibition of works by Los Angeles based artist Francesca Gabbiani, entitled Once We Were Trees.

For this exhibition we are proud to present the publication of wallpaper by Gabbiani. The wallpaper is made from an intricate graphite drawing of leafless trees with a density that evokes woods. Installed upon the wallpaper and surrounding walls will be decadent interiors Gabbiani has created by meticulously building layers of cut paper.

The Rococo complexity of the collaged interiors impress in a similar way as the gnarls in her trees. Hidden beasts, birds of prey, cherubs and spider webs found among the intricacies in her interiors correspond to the layered texture of the bark in her trees. The natural and manmade details lead onlookers through them and back to the surface exploring texture and process. Gabbiani’s works function on emotional and visceral levels - whether it is the lack of reflection in the blackness of a mirror, the eerily unpopulated yet candlelit interiors, or the seemingly endless space in her forest. A group of collaged paper poppies titled Heresie et Sorcellerie add to the enchanted feel of these unfolding spaces. The emotional tenor of Gabbiani’s work feels strangely familiar – its theatricality and narrative allusions echo from the past and conjure fables as well as classic Hollywood tales.

Francesca Gabbiani was born in Montreal and grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. She has thrice received the Swiss Federal Award of Art, where she attended the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Geneva. She has had a mid-career retrospective at the CentrePasquArt, Bienne, Switzerland and a show of new work at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. Her work has been shown at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and at the Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany, and is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hammer and Yale University, among others.