THOMAS LINDER
ERICA MAHINAY
ANDREA WELTON

Ochi Projects is pleased to present The Shape of Content, an exhibition of works by Thomas Linder, Erica Mahinay and Andrea Welton. The exhibition is on view from June 15 – July 13 with an opening reception Saturday, June 15 from 7-9pm.

By definition, form is the essential nature of a thing as distinguished from its matter. In his book from which this exhibition takes its title, Ben Shahn expanded on this definition by writing that “form is the shape of content” and argues that form cannot exist without content. The Shape of Content contextualizes three artists, who each use distinct materials, in their exploration of relating content—experience, memory and idea, to form—gesture, color and material.

Thomas Linder’s works are composed of fiberglass and layers of translucent resin. The color of the top layer is defined by all the colors below and is further activated by reflecting and absorbing light. The opticality of these works creates a space to look into as much as onto, but Linder is not interested in pure illusionism. Rather he blends an interest in craftsmanship with memories of his parents’ Midwestern greenhouse and his experiences walking along the Los Angeles River.

Erica Mahinay’s paintings are rendered in soft, suggestive hues, with semitransparent and opaque materials seamed together. She incorporates surface interventions, such as energetically fraught hand prints smeared in translucent medium and finger-sized holes sewn into the image, overtly indicating the artist’s hand. These moments of sheerness reveal the painting’s stretcher bars, a typically concealed support system, indicating that a painting, like the self, is a construction.

Andrea Welton makes paintings, as she says, “in response to the lived experience of the body in nature.” Landscape becomes both medium and content for Welton as she incorporates actual elements of earth (tree bark, quartz, feldspar) into her paintings. Mixing, pouring and layering these materials into her surfaces she distills memories of feeling, sight, sound and touch into a concise impression.

Thomas Linder (b. 1986, Saint Paul, MN) currently works in Los Angeles, California. Linder received his BFA in Sculpture and Community Arts from Kansas City Art Institute in 2008, and his MFA in Sculpture from Bowling Green State University in 2011. Linder’s work has been exhibited at Ibid Gallery, Los Angeles, Linder is also co-founder of the Los Angeles artist-run gallery, BBQLA. 

Erica Mahinay (b. 1986, Santa Fe, NM) lives in Los Angeles. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Contingent at T293, Rome and Sun Seekers at Euclid, Santa Monica, CA. She will have her second solo exhibition at Lyles & King in September 2019. Previous exhibitions also include Thin Skins, Infinity Pools and Sand Slumps at Fused Space/Jessica Silverman, San Francisco (solo); Dead Eden at Lyles & King, New York; Miranda at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles; and The Go Between: A Selection of Emerging International Artists from the Ernesto Esposito Collection at Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples. Mahinay is represented by Lyles & King, New York and T293, Rome.

Andrea Welton, (b. 1988), is a painter from Half Moon Bay, CA currently residing in Orange County, CA. She is a 2019 UC Irvine MFA candidate and received her BFA from Art Center College of Design. She has been a participant of Picture Berlin, Salmon Creek Farm, and PLAYA Summer Lake residency. Her work has been shown at galleries such as Meinblau Projektraum, Berlin, Irvine Fine Arts Center, CSULA Fine Arts Gallery, and the UAG Gallery, Irvine.