Marion Meyer Contemporary Art
354 N. Coast Hwy
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
949.497.5442
Galaxy & Selected Works
Artist: John Szabo
Exhibition: Thursday, May 7-June 14, 2009
Opening Event: Thursday, May 7th 2009, 6-9pm
Artist John Szabo will attend the opening in person.
“A rising star… Szabo’s work is inventive and thoughtful, displaying a great deal of care
in detail and concept…in the vein of Mark Rothko.”
Roberta Carasso
“John Szabo’s new series titled Galaxy, invites the viewer to form a relationship with
each piece by recalling and relating their own experiences, dreams and thoughts about
the wonders of our Galaxy. These works both inspire and demand one to explore the
mysteries of our universe.”
GALAXY & SELECTED WORKS — RECENT PAINTINGS OF JOHN SZABO
(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) In the beginning there were dreams. They began after a
late night of star gazing from an isolated Laguna Beach cove. They became more
vivid and colorful and John Szabo kept a dream diary leaving a notebook near his
bed, waking up periodically, to scribble notes.
The creative painting process began with a few months of experimentation. More of
a chemist than anything else he began mixing, dripping, splattering and applying
different types of inks into heated resin, sometimes using a blowtorch.
He recorded how the ink reacted to the resin, depending on how long the resin had
dried. He began using wooden sticks, blocks, round objects and other items available
in his studio, to apply the ink in a more controlled fashion, taking copious notes.
He began painting and experimenting on rows of small wooden squares, similar to
working in a darkroom, running test strips, before printing the final photograph,
but still experimenting and open to the unexpected, working with “happy
surprises”, even as the works became more controlled and calculated.
The culmination of this process is his current series titled Galaxy & Selected Works.
Szabo hopes that through viewing the Galaxy Series the viewer feels a connection
with something beyond their daily routine and existence. It is his intent that
viewing these pieces as a collective whole, up close and at eye level in a gallery
setting, the viewer enters into a world that transcends, challenges and invites
introspection about the possibilities beyond our world.
Did the universe begin with a
big bang 10 billion years ago? Is the universe expanding? With an estimated 100
billion galaxies in our universe and 100 billion stars is each universe what are the
changes of life on another planet?
Among other galleries Szabo has shown at The Orange County Center for
Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, CA, Marion Meyer Contemporary Art in Laguna
Beach, CA, James Gray Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA, The Dana
Point Juried Art Festival in Dana Point, CA and ArtExpo Las Vegas.
Szabo’s art has appeared in The Orange County Register and national art
publications: ARTNews, ArtMonthly, Rivera Magazine and Art Business News.
His art is included in private collections and some of of the finer businesses and
restaurants in Southern California.
Szabo will donate 10% of all sales to the Laguna Relief and Resource Center
which provides services and assistance to the homeless in Laguna Beach.
www.marionmeyergallery.com
www.szabofinearts.com
www.lagunareliefandresourcecenter.com
www.firstthursdaysartwalk.com
