“Everything divine runs with light feet” Nietzsche
Meliksetian | Briggs is pleased to present Size, Shape, Distraction an exhibition of new paintings by Meg Cranston. The fourth show of the artist’s work in the gallery, the exhibition continues Cranston’s ongoing interest in themes personal identity, the subjective and their relationship to the broader culture by way of color theory, design, shared cultural references and formal experimentation. Cranston’s paintings are characterized by their playfulness and wit, an entrance into her explorations into the nature of image making and the role the artist plays in our society.
Meg Cranston (b. 1960, Baldwin, NY) received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts and her BA from Kenyon College. She has received awards such as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, J. Paul Getty Community Foundation Artist Grant, Architectural Foundation of American Art in Public Places Award, and a COLA Artist Grant and is currently the Chair of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles.
Cranston has been exhibiting internationally since 1988. Early exhibitions include curator Paul Schimmel’s seminal 1992 exhibition Helter Skelter at the MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (cat.) and the 1993 Biennale di Venezia, Venice Biennale (cat.). Solo exhibitions include the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Ohio; Kunstverien Heilbronn, Germany; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen; Artspace, Auckland (catalog) and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Recent group exhibitions include, among others, Class Reunion, MUMOK, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; This Brush for Hire, ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (an exhibition which she also co-curated with John Baldessari); Post-Studio, Museo Jumex, Jumex Collection, Mexico City; Welcome to the Dollhouse, MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Los Angeles - A Fiction at the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo and the MAC, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, France (cat.); L’ image volée curated by Thomas Demand at the Fondazione Prada, Milan (cat.), and Los Angeles; Exuberance, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA.
Cranston’s work is included in major collections worldwide including the MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.