A piece of abstract art can mean something different to everyone whose eyes come across it. When strategically arranged in a gallery, those individual paintings mix, mingle, and exchange a dialogue amongst themselves to create a cohesive theme. Such is the case in the “Cries and Whispers” exhibition currently on display at Los Angeles’s Sam Lee Gallery. According to the gallery staff, “Cries and Whispers” looks at abstraction from a multi-faceted perspective, exploring the different ways in which visual devices are employed through a paramount usage of line, color, and content.

“What we found over time as we were curating the show is that the majority of the works spoke to us. They cry and they whisper and we sort of liked the fact that they kind of vacillated between something that was a little flashy and something that was a little more meditative,” says co-curator Paul W. Evans.

“Cries and Whispers,” currently on display at the Sam Lee Gallery through June 4th, features a group of 15 talented artists, all from very individualistic backgrounds: Jakob Christmas, William Conger, Jeff Gambill, Glenn Goldberg, Joanne Greenbaum, Hadley Holliday, Andy Kolar, Andrew Masullo, Douglas Melini, Robin Mitchell, John Pearson, Carl Smith, Andrew Spence, Misato Suzuki, and Laura Sharp Wilson. According to Evans, the exhibit consists of a mix of both established and innovative artists, “all who work in very serious and some cases idiosyncratic ways – different languages, different usages of symbolism, and in ways that are quiet and some ways that are not so quiet.”

Laura Sharp Wilson is among the artists with works exhibited in the show. During the opening reception, ChinaShop caught up with Wilson who explained the inspiration behind her personal contributions to “Cries and Whispers.”

Were you excited to be a part of the “Cries and Whispers” show?

I was excited about the show because it’s a really interesting mix of abstract artists and I think there are a lot of relationships visually between the different works. When I heard the names of the different artists that were in the show I looked them up because I was curious. Some were new discoveries so the prospect of these people showing together was exciting.

Can you tell us a bit about the pieces you have on display here today?

I made three paintings for the show. There are two that are hanging and they’re all based on noose forms. I just had a solo show in New York at a gallery Chelsea called McKenzie Fine Art and the name of the show was “Utah” because I moved to Salt Lake City two years ago. As you can imagine, for somebody that grew up in New Jersey, the experience of moving to Utah was a pretty strange and difficult acclamation. It was very interesting just learning about the history there and kind of being an outsider too. It’s been a pretty big experience in my life so I made all these paintings that were sort of a response to that experience. They’re not specific illustrations by any means but they’re abstract responses and they all have titles that related to the experience of living there. I was really thinking of being in the West and the different cultures there – the Mormon pioneer culture and Native American culture and cowboy culture and so I had this idea for these sort of noose forms hanging in the old west and so the paintings that are in the show are based on noose forms. There’s “Four Way Noose” and “Loop Noose.”

What was the process of creating those pieces like?

Well the way that I work is that I usually have a clear idea of an initial form that I want to start with. I just put that form down then I keep building the paintings off that so it’s a really step-by-step sort of process. I’ll bring in one sort of form and then the next day there’s another form and I use a really sort of traditional abstract painting method of really contemplating the work. I don’t usually have an end image in mind and that’s the whole thing that’s exciting to me; it’s a journey.

How long did those paintings take to make?

Probably a month. I usually work on a series of paintings together and it’s usually in a series of three or four.

Is abstract art usually your focus or do you do other art forms as well?

No actually my work has changed quite a bit recently. I for several years was working with sort of botanical forms and they were really flat and surreal and I studied textile design so there’s definitely a lot of influence. I use a lot of pattern and sort of woven forms but they definitely have sort of figurative botanical reference and then the work that I’ve been doing the last year is very abstract. I’m very interested in starting to layer more and have a denser circumposition.

How long have you been an artist for?

Since I was little. My mother told me that I was going to be a painter when I was little so I said, ‘OK.’ All I ever planned on doing was going to art school. It’s changed a little bit. When I was an undergrad, I focused on painting and drawing and I didn’t really feel like that was enough for me. I wanted something else so this friend of mine suggested I go to school for painting and design so I studied surface textile design and I’ve always really loved fabric and clothing so that really changed my work. I did go back to painting and sculpture and it was only through this experience of really studying textile design that really changed my works.

Out of the pieces featured in “Cries and Whispers,” other than yours, do you have a favorite?

Well I really love Glenn Goldberg’s work and I had never seen his work before. He was a New York painter that was part of the ‘70’s pattern movement and I was really excited about being in an exhibition with him because I feel like we have a lot of kindred approaches. He’s got this flower shape and he uses a lot of dots. I was really taken with his work. There are several favorites but I’d say that’s probably the favorite out there.

What are you working on now?

Right now, I’m working on three paintings and they’re just sort of like weavings and I’m building up. They are going to be more of like a field and I think that they are about African countries that are in turmoil and they’re not illustrative at all but they’re sort of my method of connecting. One’s going to be called Uganda, one’s gonna be called Nigeria, and I haven’t figured out the title for the other yet.

To see more of Laura Sharp Wilson’s work, check out her gallery of images on the McKenzie Fine Art website.

Words by Nicole Pajer. Photos by Dustin Downing