by: Ellen C. Caldwell
for New American Paintings
Multimedia artist Rebecca Farr’s fourth solo show Out of Nothing welcomes viewers into a personal journey and emotional recovery as she uses monumental oil paintings and sculptural installations to explore the process and aftermath of losing her father.
This deeply intimate work is touching, moving, and beautifully real. During the weeks following a divisive election, many Americans are left lost, angry, and vulnerable, in need of soul searching and nurturing — and Farr’s exhibit offers a safe space for both.
Quite literally, Farr has worked in conjunction with gallery owner Deb Klowden Mann to lead a series of conversations in the wake of the elections. During both talks, viewers sit amidst Farr’s artwork, listening to one another, discussing the election’s impact on marginalized and targeted groups, and coming up with ways to deepen a commitment to action — all while considering the ways in which art and the Los Angeles art scene can function and work in solidarity within this new era.
Figuratively too, though, Out of Nothing offers viewers a deeply raw and emotional space to explore the complex feelings of loss which we have all experienced in our lives, in one form of another. Farr’s work is beautiful and honest, drawing upon themes that ran deeply between the relationship she shared with her father. She explores religious iconography and beliefs ranging from her “culturally inherited Christian ideology” to “the adopted practice of Buddhism” which both she and her father shared in common…