The synaesthetic work of Menthe Wells, on show in LA

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Menthe Wells, an artist who has exhibited internationally, has an exhibition of sculpture and painting in Los Angeles now until 27 January at the LA Artcore’s Brewery Art Center.The exhibition  includes 40  paintings and new genre calligraphic welded steel sculptures.  
 
The artist has been dubbed ‘soft sculpturist extraordinaire’ by the Hartford Courant. The new work is welded steel and the series of calligraphic drawings in welded steel has extended drawing into sculpture using metal. This work stems from the concept of synaesthesia, as musical sound transferred into visual experience in art. 

In 2012, Menthe Wells exhibited over 35 feet of paintings in over two dozen works plus three synaesthetic sight­–sound projections in an international museum exhibition in Thailand.  Sight–sound intermedia using the earlier animated sculpture that were larger than the artist herself were shown in projections of the work she had developed for television for the Wadsworth Atheneum Art Museum. The work was exhibited at the Chiang Mai University Art Museum in Thailand in January and February of 2012.

In May 2012, her art was selected by California Homes Magazine (The Magazine of Architecture, The Arts and Distinctive Design) for the Laguna Design House 2012 Design Exhibition. The work was exhibited in May and June 2012.   As a painter, Menthe Wells’ work  is considered to be landscape abstract expressionist.
 
Menthe Wells has created happenings/events at Roundabout Theatre Stage II, in New York City, and in multiple east coast galleries. In the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Connecticut, she created the first sight­–sound intermedia work in the galleries. This event was a three-day experience involving more than 40 people, which was recorded as an experience and shown as the first intermedia work at the Atheneum and throughout the east coast. This work was curated by Roger Selby and Jim Elliott, museum directors. Menthe Wells’ intermedia work was also shown in the form of art/happenings/events, children’s plays and animated sculpture on CBS television for the museum.
 
Now as a California-based artist exhibiting internationally, Menthe Wells is creating vibrant calligraphic line drawing in welded metal sculptures, 5–7 feet tall, and geometric smaller sculptural studies.  Her diverse contemporary art embraces synaesthesia, using all the senses as a natural response to the environment.

At the University of Connecticut, Menthe Wells specialized in the examination of synaesthesia. Her art emphasizes symbols, reflecting an ecological interest that embraces investigation of the relationships among art and landscape forms in nature expressed in both painting and welded metal using the synaesthesia, which is now understood as the evocation of one sense by another.

3–27 January 2013:  Paintings and new genre welded steel sculpture.
Reception 13 January 2012 1.00 p.m.  Artist talk 2.00p.m.

LA Artcore Los Angeles Brewery Art Center
650 South Avenue 21, Los Angeles, CA 90031