Midnight Hour represents a new vein of Gustafson’s painting practice, expanding on her ongoing investigations of transformation, sequential evolution, and corporal systems. The title refers to the abstraction of ideas and intrusive thoughts that occur in the dark midnight hours. Many of the images are drawn from time spent at Aquatic Park, SF and Gustafson’s experience with open water swimming. In this exhibition swimming and swim gear become symbols for both transformation and restraint. The criss-cross of the back of a swimsuit, goggles, a pair of flippers, all become simplified to their most elemental gestures.
While swimming in the cold brackish waters of the San Francisco Bay, one peers through a dense greenish blue fog underwater. As each hand enters the surface, it quickly disappears into a sea-green cloudy void. The works in Midnight Hour attempts to articulate abstracted visions and expose anxieties and fear while being in this darkness of the sea, the night, and the mind.
The works in this exhibition were created at the same time as a book of Gustafson’s work titled “Treasure Trove” which consists of the artist’s visual notes from 2020-2023. Like the creation of Treasure Trove this exhibition was made and exhibited thinking about paintings in pairs. Drawing from her native San Francisco Bay Area’s art legacy, Gustafson draws inspiration from artists such as Margaret Kilgallen, Etel Adnan, and Miyoko Ito. Her application of paint in flat opaque layers is learned from her experience with screen printing.
Lena Gustafson (b. San Francisco 1989) received her BFA from the Art Institute of Boston in Illustration and Art Therapy in 2011. Gustafson is presenting her second solo show Midnight Hour at China Heights in Sydney, Australia. She has presented two solo shows at Park Life Gallery in SF and Pt2 Gallery in Oakland, CA. Some recent group exhibitions include New Image Art (Los Angeles, CA), The Hole NYC (New York, NY), The Fog Fair (San Francisco, CA), China Heights (Sydney Australia), SFMOMA (San Francisco, CA), and the Headlands Spring Auction (San Francisco, CA). In 2011 she co-founded Night Diver Press
with her husband Peter Calderwood. Together they use silkscreen and other alternative printing techniques to create and publish multiples in the form of prints, books, zines, and monotypes. They have exhibited work at Art Book Fairs in Mexico, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area.