LIA HALLORAN: Warped Side

Luis de Jesus Los Angeles

November 4 - December 22, 2023

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce Lia Halloran: Warped Side, a new series of paintings exploring the curiosities of warped space-time, on view from November 4 through December 22, 2023. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, November 4, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Lia Halloran created over 500 paintings during a 13-year period while making the book The Warped Side of Our Universe: An Odyssey through Black Holes, Wormholes, Time Travel and Gravitational Waves, co-authored by Halloran and Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Kip Thorne. The book will be released by Norton/Liveright on October 31st and the gallery will host a book signing on Saturday, December 16th from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

The paintings in Warped Side are a cumulation of the friendship and collaboration between Halloran and Thorne to mobilize science, art, and poetry to explore aspects of the universe that many people are curious about: black holes, wormholes, and other strange phenomena. The exhibition features a selection of paintings published in the book alongside new larger-scaled works representing an expanded view of each chapter in the book.

Halloran engenders an intimate and empathetic approach to storytelling through the figurative portrayal of her wife, Felicia, who is depicted throughout the epic narrative in the heroic role of a space traveler, braving through the probabilities of wormholes and perils of black holes. Throughout the sequence of paintings, Felicia’s humanity bridges distant concepts closer to home, a parallel to Thorne’s poetic verse. In this respect, the project presents an intimate experience of our universe’s knowns and unknowns.

Over the years, Halloran has employed painting techniques in conversation with visual mediums associated with research and scientific studies — from photography to cyanotypes to drafting paper. In these works, Halloran uses ink on drafting film to achieve a range of indigos, cyans, and blues that animate the sublime characteristics of the cosmos and celestial abstractions. With gravity in play, the ink realizes a range of opacities from the densities of black holes to pulsating galaxies and the many dimensions of the human form.

Read the full press release here