Tree Triptych Drawing (2020), Pencil, wax on paper (3 panels), 72” x 120”, Courtesy of the artist, Photo Credit: M. Lee Fatherree
Walking (2022), Oil on canvas, 66” x 48”, Courtesy of the artist, Photo Credit: M. Lee Fatherree
Opening October 2023, New Museum Los Gatos is pleased to present The Hiking Club: A Vocabulary of Yearning, a solo exhibition featuring Linda Simmel.
Through evocative drawings, etchings, and paintings, Linda Simmel explores personal and cultural connections between landscape, memory, and history. The Hiking Club: A Vocabulary of Yearning intertwines the story of being the daughter of an immigrant, with the sublime in nature. The works in the show are in part homage to landscape, trees, and the histories they’ve lived in, as well as Simmel’s immigrant father and the time in which he lived. For the artist, the work reveals the process of unraveling the burden of history that defines her, which ultimately presents a sensitive inquiry into intergenerational cultural identity, loss, and renewal.
This exhibition can be found in the Spotlight Gallery.
The Hiking Club (2019), Pencil, wax on paper, 39” x 72”, Courtesy of the artist, Photo Credit: M. Lee Fatherree
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Linda Simmel (born in Los Angeles) is a Bay Area artist. Simmel’s paintings, drawings, and historically based etchings explore the influence of history on a psyche and subsequent feelings of longing that arise from the immigrant experience. Simmel received her BFA from the University of California at Berkeley and was represented by Takada Gallery. She spent a decade traveling to and showing in and around Berlin, becoming an international participant in the newly formed artist collective “Atelierhaus Panzerhalle e.V”, which was set in a tank repair workshop and ruinous surrounding barracks of a military base in the forests of Potsdam, Germany. In 2012 Simmel was an artist resident at the Baer Art Center in Iceland; in 2013 an artist at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California; and she has been an artist in residence at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California since 2007. Simmel is included in the permanent collections of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, California; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art, Moraga, California; and the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California. Linda Simmel currently lives and works in Sonoma, California.
About the Curator
Marianne K. McGrath is an independent art curator. After successful years working within museums (including NUMU) curating exhibits and presenting art and education programs, Marianne started an independent practice. Her curatorial projects for art institutions and galleries aim to bring art to the community through thoughtful, diverse, locally connected and globally relevant exhibitions. Marianne’s passion for art and art education motivates her work as a curator in introducing people to art and contributing to the contemporary art world. Marianne holds a BA degree in Art and an MA degree in Art History and her professional affiliations include ArtTable, College Art Association, and Women’s Caucus for Art.
