A Walk After Dinner: Family Narratives in Art
A Conversation on Art, Parenthood, and Personal Storytelling

OCHI is pleased to present A Walk After Dinner: Family Narratives in Art, a conversation about the intersection of art and family featuring curator and art advisor Thea Smolinski, artist Paige Turner-Uribe, and artist and writer Daniel Gerwin. This event will take place on Saturday, April 12th from 1-2 PM PDT, the gallery will remain open to celebrate the opening of Paige Turner-Uribe’s solo exhibition, Eventide, from 2-5 PM PDT.

The discussion explores how artists navigate the complexities of raising children while maintaining a creative practice, as well as the ways in which parenthood informs artistic vision. Turner-Uribe’s recent body of work draws on the tradition of Impressionist painters who captured intimate, everyday moments with their families in shifting light, embracing the ephemerality of both time and atmosphere. In a contemporary context, it speaks to the ongoing impulse to preserve fleeting instants—whether the golden glow of dawn or the ever-changing stages of a child’s life—through art, reflecting how artists today continue to balance personal storytelling with the passage of time. 

Thea Smolinski is an art advisor, collection manager, and curator passionate about supporting artists. She has a BA in Art History from Georgetown University, and she completed an MA and doctoral exams at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Smolinski has held positions at The Wolfsonian-FIU, Michael Werner, Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art, Allan Schwartzman, and with Linda Nochlin. She has also managed private family collections. Recent curatorial projects include the Jane Club (Los Angeles), the Pit (Palm Springs), Shrine (Los Angeles), Massey Klein (New York), and Future Fair (Los Angeles) and reflect an ongoing interest in women, networks, and labor. She lives in Los Angeles with the painter Craig Kucia and their two children.

Paige Turner-Uribe is a painter whose recent work often depicts her daughters, continuing a rich tradition of artists capturing intimate family moments. Drawing inspiration from painters such as Gwen John, Mary Cassatt, and Paula Modersohn-Becker, her paintings illuminate the interplay between tenderness, domestic life, and the urban landscape of Los Angeles. Turner-Uribe earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in painting and printmaking from San Diego State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Massey Klein Gallery, Fortnight Institute, Mindy Solomon Gallery, and Saatchi Gallery, among others. Her work has been featured in Southwest Contemporary Magazine, The New Yorker, Club Sandwich Magazine, and The San Diego Union-Tribune. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Daniel Gerwin writes regularly for Artforum, and has written catalog essays, interviews, and reviews for other publications including Frieze, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and ArtCritical. He has had solo and group exhibitions throughout the country, including New York and Los Angeles, where his solo show was reviewed by the LA Times. He has taught painting, drawing, and theory at University of California Davis, University of the Arts, University of Iowa, and University of Pennsylvania. In 2016 he was a Resident Fellow at MacDowell. Daniel lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. 

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OCHI is pleased to present Eventide, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Paige Turner-Uribe. This is Turner-Uribe’s debut exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition will be on view at OCHI, located at 3301 W Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, from April 12 through May 24, 2025.

Eventide features paintings of quotidian moments softened by atmosphere. Gradually layering, wiping away, and reapplying oil paint, Paige Turner-Uribe generates an illusion of air, allowing light to move and create depth through the surface of her works. Shifting between scenes within her home, observed moments from her neighborhood, and panoramic views of Los Angeles, Turner-Uribe considers the diffusion and translucence of early evening and morning light as it interacts with color—overlapping and blending forms as they soften at the edges. Though ordinary, the moments captured within her home are as fleeting as the outdoor light—her daughter with her nose buried in a book, applying mascara, or showing off a freshly picked flower in a nearby park.

Often depicting her daughters, Turner-Uribe joins the longstanding art historical tradition of artists painting their children, families, and close companions. Providing an intimate glimpse into the artist’s personal life with tenderness and connection, the practice also reflects broader social context, capturing everyday life. Turner-Uribe refers to the domestic familiarity of artists such as Gwen John and her observational paintings of women holding books; Mary Cassatt’s tender depictions of women’s inner lives and subtle play of light; and Paula Modorsohn-Becker’s nude self-portraits, among others. She paints a radiant sunset and includes the numerous trash cans on the street; she features palms and a luminous apartment interior alongside a dilapidated tarp catching the wind; and she depicts her daughter on their balcony amongst the moon rise over the billboards and buildings that obscure the distant hills. In casting a glowing evening light on the otherwise mundane, Turner-Uribe honors the polarities and realities of life in Los Angeles. In the blue hour of dusk, the city and its flaws all feel a bit more magical.

Turner-Uribe (b. Quantico, Virginia) earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois and a BA in painting and printmaking from San Diego State University in California. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at galleries including Massey Klein Gallery and Fortnight Institute in New York, NY; Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, FL; Smoke the Moon in Santa Fe, NM; Wilton Castle in Wexford, Ireland; Patel Gallery in Toronto, Canada; Saatchi Gallery in London, United Kingdom; and 0-0-LA in Los Angeles, CA. Turner-Uribe’s artwork has been featured and reviewed in publications such as Southwest Contemporary Magazine, The New Yorker, Club Sandwich Magazine, and The San Diego Union-Tribune. Turner-Uribe lives and works in Los Angeles, California.