Natural Force
Gods of fire have made their appearances in cultures throughout history. They have been chosen to represent cut gemstones on repurposed media. The work fits into the Ecocentric Art Movement by bringing materials back to life. A reclaimed printed background disappears behind opaque oil paint rendering and reappears through transparent acrylic wash. Eternal flames re-emerge in the facets of jewels which reflect and transfix.
Ecocentric: Repurposing Media
Harper paints cut gemstones on reclaimed materials. What begins as refuse is repurposed, transforming base materials into noble objects. Diverse mediums such as discarded tablecloths, wallpaper, graphic posters, upholstery fabric, paintings, canvases, commercial art, building and metal scraps are surface medium. By reforming and re-employing, the work fits into the Ecocentric Art Movement through bringing materials back to life. Harper synthesizes historical and contemporary styles by mixing the classical tradition of still-life painting with modernism.
Bio
S. P. Harper studied art at the American University in Paris, France, University of Southern California (BFA) and ArtCenter in Pasadena, California. After spending 12 years in New York, Harper returned to Los Angeles to teach art and concentrate on Ecocentic Art.
Shows
2016
Chaos Theory, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana
Ground Floor-Chelsea, Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York
Big, Little and Open, Santa Barbara Art Guild, Santa Barbara
Night on Broadway Art Share LA Pop-up Gallery, Arts District, Los Angeles
Georgia Galleria, Vallejo, California
Out There, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association
Beyond the Lines Art Show, Imperial Street, Arts District, Los Angeles
Distinctive Voices, Santa Monica Art Studios, Santa Monica
Benefit Auction, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association
2015
All Media, Chico Art Center, Chico, California
101 Contemporary Artists, Artvoices Art Books
Still Life, Linus Gallery, Pasadena, California
The Peace Project, The Whole 9 Gallery, Culver City, California
Out There, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association
ArtSlant Prize Showcase, Los Angeles, California
Benefit Auction, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association
2014
Small Time, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association
Eliciting desire. What is it? Who creates it?
Harper answers with images of cut gems on recycled materials. What begins as a bit of refuse is repurposed to become something of value, and therefore desirable. Transforming base materials into noble objects, the artist becomes an alchemist, questioning the ontology of art.
Focusing on the intersection of rummage rubbish and object d’art, showing how materials change from valuable to worthless and back to valuable again, the work explores layers and levels of reality. The surface first layer is a discarded scrap, formerly a door, made from wood, which originates from a tree. A photograph from a jewelry catalogue taken of a precious stone instigates the gem painting. Thus, the object circle of life is complete.
Desire is predicated on making choices. Choice is made by identification and understanding. The paintings combine two colors to represent a place, time or memory. As sounds and smells take the listener back to a place and time, so too does color. Color theory creates style and personality, shapes selection and ultimately brings desire.
Several layers are revealed in each depiction. An existing printed background partially disappears behind an acrylic wash as well as disappearing all together behind opaque oil paint rendering. Background recycled patterns appear and disappear through the transparent and reflective facets in the jewels. Harper synthesizes historical and contemporary styles, taking the classical traditions of still-life painting and filtering them through the lens of modernist practice.
Diverse mediums such as wall lath and plaster rubble, door composite fragments, tablecloths, graphic posters, upholstery fabric, discarded canvases, commercial art and metal scraps are surface materials improved by alteration. By reforming and re-employing, the work fits into the Ecocentric Art Movement to reduce, reuse and recycle. Indeed, every piece recasts formerly worthless material and brings it back to life.
Ecocentric: Repurposing Media
Harper paints and sculptes abstact geometrics with reclaimed materials. What begins as refuse is repurposed, transforming base materials into noble objects. Diverse mediums such as discarded tablecloth, wallpaper, curtain, upholstery fabric, painting canvas, lath & plaster, building and metal scrap are constuction media. By reforming and re-employing, the work fits into eco-centric art (aka neo-materialsm) to reduce, re-use and up-cycle. Harper synthesizes historical and contemporary styles by mixing the classical tradition of still-life painting with modernism.
Natural Force
Gods of fire have made their appearances in cultures throughout history. They have been chosen to represent painted gemstones that bring materials back to life. A reclaimed printed background disappears behind opaque oil paint rendering and reappears through transparent acrylic wash. Sculptural three dimensional geometric planes mirror light and environment. Eternal flames emerge in facets which reflect and transfix.
Bio
S. P. Harper studied art at the American University in Paris, France with Paul Jenkins, USC Roski School of Fine Arts (BFA) and ArtCenter in Pasadena, California. After spending 12 years in New York City, Harper returned to Los Angeles to teach art and concentrate on ecocentic art. Harper’s grandfather, Archibald Picking, was a diamantaire (diamond cutter) before becoming a conductor for Pacific Electric Red Cars.
Education
American University in Paris, France
University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Art, Los Angeles (BFA)
ArtCenter, Pasadena, California
Exhibitions
2023
Art & Technology, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, juried by Jeremy
Thornton
Camp NFT, ArtHouse, New York City, New York
Pushing Boundaries, Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center, Burbank, California, juried by Katherine
Chang
Apophenia, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park Foundation, California
Visual Fiction: famous titles reimagined, Pasadena Public Library, Pasadena, California, curated
by Nancy Larrew
Simulacrum juried by James Panozzo, Launch LA, Supersense juried by Cynthia Penna, Art
1037, Italy, Chestnut, juried by Danielle Avram, UTD SP/Gallery, Dallas, TX, Gallery 825, LAAA,
2022
Xenia: Physical Exhibition in London, The Holy Art, The Factory Gallery, London, UK
Natural Force: S. P. Harper Solo Show, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Art Association, California
Freiheit (freedom), Kunsthaus RoZig, Virtual Exhibition
Open Show 2022, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Art Association, California, juried by Rebecca Lowery, MOCA
The Non-Objective Moment, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Art Association, California, juried by Cheryl Perkey
Flowers 4 Peace & Prosperity, Red Bluff Art Gallery, Red Bluff, California
Made in California, Brea Gallery, Brea, California
2021
Mujeres Valences “Brave Women”, Ontario Museum of History & Art, Ontario, California
Reflections From Home, USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
High Beams, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, California
Up-Cycle, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Art Association, Los Angeles, California, juried by Elizabeth East, LA Louver
Black & White, Site: Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Picking Up the Pieces, Collage Artists of America, https://sfvacc.org/picking-up-the-pieces
Hot Damn: An All Female Group Exhibit, Shockboxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, California, juried by Aimee Mandala
Waiting Room: Group Exhibition, Platt Borstein Gallery, AJU, Bel-Air, California
Textures, Patterns, Shapes or Forms, Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2020
The Birds and the Bees: A Celebration of Spring, Malibu City Hall, Malibu, California
Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, California, juried by Dan McCleary
Imagine: A Visual Arts Exhibit, Platt Borstein Gallery, AJU, Bel-Air, California
Gleaming Apollo, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association, Los Angeles, California
Animal Behavior and Endless Horizon, bG Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, California
2019
Shelter “Seven Million Karats”, Audubon Center at Debs Park, Los Angeles, California
Ecocentric Installation “Global Village Festival” Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, California
Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, California, juried by Alma Ruiz, MOCA
Wish You Were Here, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
Imagine: A Visual Arts Exhibit, Platt Borstein Gallery, AJU, Bel-Air, California
Bouquett, The Room and Portal, bG Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, California
Earth Recycle, Downey Civic Art Center, Downey, California
2018
Odyssey II, TAM: Torrence Art Museum, Torrence, California
Remembrance, Autry Historic Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California
One Hundred Vibrant Artists, Neutra Institute Museum, Silverlake, California
Art Expo Yerevan, Museum of Modern Art, Yerevan, Armenia, curated by Narine Isajanyan
Silence Breakers, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, Connecticut
Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, California
Imagine: A Visual Arts Exhibit, Platt and Borstein Gallery, AJU, Bel-Air, California
Bunker Opens Doors, Long Hall Art Gallery, West Hollywood, California, juried by Peter Frank
Anything Goes, Atrium Gallery, County Government Center, Ventura, California
L.A. Fashion Week/Art Hearts Fashion, Six Summit Gallery, Ivoryton, Connecticut
Personal Vacation, Gallery 825, LAAA, juried by Chris Davies
Seeing Red, One One Six Two, Los Angeles, California, curated by Colette von Haus
2017
MOAH: Cedar Cedarfest, Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, California
Gods of Fire, Living Room Gallery, W Hotel Hollywood, Hollywood
Summer Exhibition / Endless Summer, AC Gallery, Hollywood, California
It Takes A Village, CA / 101, Redondo Beach, California
Semi-Precious, Art Share L.A. Gallery, Arts District, Los Angeles
Abstract ll, Beyond the Lines Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
Imagine: A Visual Arts Exhibit, Platt and Borstein Gallery, Los Angeles
Gods of Fire, Art Share L.A., Groundwork Coffee Company, Hollywood
Contemporary Art / ipsō ˈfaktō, Industrial Gallery of Art, North Hollywood
What Does DTLA Mean To You?, Angels City Brewery, Arts District, Los Angeles
2016
Chaos Theory, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana
Ground Floor-Chelsea, Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, NY, curated by Ruthie Tucker
Big, Little and Open, Santa Barbara Art Guild, juried by Rafael Perea de la Cabada
On an Odd Night, TAG Gallery Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
Night on Broadway Art Share LA Pop-up Gallery, Arts District, Los Angeles
Georgia Galleria, Vallejo, California, curated by Daisy Villanueva
OneArt: Artists for a Cure, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica
2015
All Media, Chico Art Center, Chico, California, curated by Klint Kettell
Still Life, Linus Gallery, Pasadena, California
The Peace Project, The Whole 9 Gallery, Culver City, California
Out There, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association, juried by William Escalera & Francisco George
2014
Small Time, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association, juried by Cris McCall
Out There, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association, juried by William Escalera & Francisco George
Benefit Auction, Gallery 825, Los Angeles Artist Association
Clean Cryptocurrency NFTs
Birthstone Gods of Fire, Open Sea
https://opensea.io/collection/sp-harper-birthstone-gods-of-fire
Publications
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: S. P. Harper, Art & Cake
https://artandcakela.com/2023/05/13/artist-spotlight-s-p-harper/
NATURAL FORCE: S. P. Harper Solo Show
NATURAL FORCE: S. P. Harper Solo Show Art Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaJ1PKZnOvY&t=58s
Dailey Inspiration: Meet S. P. Harper I Artist, Voyage LA I Los Angeles Magazine
http://voyagela.com/interview/daily-inspiration-meet-s-p-harper/
LAAA - Powerful Environmentally Focused Solo Show, Diversions LA
3 Minute Studio Visit with S. P. Harper, Los Angeles Art Association
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2NqCbxzq-U
Volume Forty-Nine, Studio Visit Magazine, Contributor
Meet S. P. Harper I Artist, Voyage LA I Los Angeles Magazine
https://shoutoutla.com/meet-s-p-harper-artist/
Studio Visit: S. P. Harper Neo Materialist Artist
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CA3yH95BTX7/?igshid=rnfh0vd67r1h
Interview with S. P. Harper and Lydia Yi, bG Gallery Gestalt Projects
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDCd4VWDSH6/?igshid=1lt0x1eimmzt9
Third Coast Gems CHAT with Ben Guttery and S. P. Harper
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDCd4VWDSH6/?igshid=1lt0x1eimmzt9
Sunday Studio: S. P. Harper, Create! Magazine
https://www.createmagazine.com/blog/2019-7-17-studio-sunday-susan-harper
101 Contemporary Artists, Artvoices Art Books, edited by Terrence Sanders
Circle Quarterly Art Review Magazine, London, UK
Issue 10: The Undertaking, Full Blede Magazine, Contributor
4x4 Gallery: S. P. Harper, ArtCenter Dot Magazine, written by Solvej Schou, curated by Winnie Li
http://www.artcenter.edu/connect/dot-magazine/articles/4x4-fall-2018.html
Art & Life With S. P. Harper, SD Voyager Magazine
http://sdvoyager.com/interview/art-life-s-p-harper/
Los Angeles Art Association Book Volume ll
https://www.laaa.org/s-p-harper?rq=s.%20p.%20harper
Experience
2015-present Art Professor, AJU American Jewish University, Los Angeles
2015-present Art Professor, Alexander Hamilton & Los Angeles Public High School
2011-present Art Professor, Belmont Senior Center, Los Angeles
2001-2009 Assistant Art Professor, Roscomare Road Public School, Los Angeles
2015-present Art Lecturer, LA Guest Artist Series, David Valentine
Awards
rtist Of The Month, “Art Jobs” New York, New York
https://www.artjobs.com/op/artists/united-states/43302/s-p-harper#
First Place, “3D Art Exhibition” Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, California
https://www.cityofirvine.org/irvine-global-village-festival/exhibits-art
COCA2020 Finalist, COCA Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
https://cocaproject.art/artists/s-p-harper-coca20/
Certificate of Achievement "Water Works" Huntington Beach Art Center, California
Artavita Certificate of Excellence, Despina Tunberg, Santa Barbara, California
ArtSlant Prize Showcase, Los Angeles, California
Artvoices Magazine 10th Anniversary Gallery Guide featured artist
Special Recognition Category, Light, Space & Time Online Art Gallery, John R. Math
Collections
In the collection of Mandy & Cliff Einstein, Glorya Kaufman, Gayle Garner Roski, TAM Torrance Art Museum, Malibu City Hall, HoldYou Foundation, South Bay Contemporary Gallery, Gary Cannone, Rachel Allen, Nicole Perlman, Sharon Lane, Dr. Arpee F. Yeretzian, Karen Hochman Brown, Leslie Lashinsky, Harris Silver, Catherine Stam: Seattle, WA, Todd Waldermeyer: Lilburn, GA, Leigh Rivé and Mark Oliva, Mavilo, Tampa, Florida
To elicit desire. What is it? Who creates it?
Harper answers with images of gemstones on recycled materials. What begins as a bit of refuse is repurposed to become something of value, and therefore desirable. Transforming base materials into noble objects, the artist becomes an alchemist, questioning the ontology of art.
Focusing on the intersection of rummage rubbish and object d’art, showing how materials change from valuable to worthless and back to valuable again, the work explores layers and levels of reality. The surface first layer is a discarded scrap, formerly a door, made from wood, which originates from a tree. A photograph from a jewelry catalogue taken of a precious stone instigates the gem painting. Thus, the object circle of life is complete.
Desire is predicated on making choices. Choice is made by identification and understanding. The paintings combine two colors to represent a place, time or memory. As sounds and smells take the listener back to a place and time, so too does color. Color theory creates style and personality, shapes selection and ultimately brings desire.
Several layers are revealed in each depiction. An existing printed background partially disappears behind an acrylic wash as well as disappearing all together behind opaque oil paint rendering. Background recycled patterns appear and disappear through the transparent and reflective facets in the jewels. Harper synthesizes historical and contemporary styles, taking the classical traditions of still-life painting and filtering them through the lens of modernist practice.
Diverse mediums such as wall lath and plaster rubble, door composite fragments, tablecloths, graphic posters, upholstery fabric, discarded canvases, commercial art and metal scraps are surface materials improved by alteration. By reforming and re-employing, the work fits into eco-centric art (aka neo-materialism) to reduce, reuse and upcycle. Indeed, every piece recasts formerly worthless material and brings it back to life.
S. P. Harper: DIVERSITY
I am an artist who uses recycled and diverse materials. I am an artist who wants to make the earth cool again.
Diversity to me, an Ecocentric, is to employ different and discarded elements like used tablecloth, curtain, milk crate and building materials like lathe and plaster.
I am interested in the opposite ends of diversity, the stark contrast between worthless me-some and valuable gem stones. It makes me happy when viewers recognize diverse materials and diverse ideas in my work.
S. P. Harper interview with Nicholas Laskin of ArtCenter:
ArtCenter alumni S. P. Harper now channels her passion for sustainability through the art of painting jewels and gemstones on reclaimed and repurposed materials. Read more about her creative journey.
Tell us about your career path after graduating from ArtCenter. What do you do now?
When I graduated from ArtCenter, L.A. was not a cultural mecca in the way that it is today. It was also a somewhat chauvinistic scene, particularly in the 1980’s. Being a woman with artistic aspirations, I had to work harder than just about everybody else in the room. I knew it was going to be difficult – I just didn’t quite know how difficult it was going to be.
I wanted to be taken seriously. I had a really, really good portfolio at my disposal – why shouldn’t someone hire me? When I moved to New York post-grad, I found the primary thing I was looking for: work. I subletted a ground-level studio apartment where the rent was reasonable. At the time, I was just exploring the city and taking it all in – I still didn’t have any concept of what I was going to paint.
I knew I wanted to work with people – the idea of a solitary creative life never made sense. I craved assignments and thrived off of deadlines. And so I began doing odd trompe l’oeil, illustration and design gigs: a little here, a little there.
In hindsight, this exploratory phase was really good for me. It gave me a sense of who I wanted to become. I was hanging out in the new, gentrified part of SoHo: mixing it up, living in the moment, and trying to meet the right people. I would hang out at Studio 54, the Mud Club, and many other famous New York haunts. Julian Schnabel was selling plate paintings at Mary Boone Gallery for around $3000. When I look back on it, these were some of the greatest and most creatively crucial years of my life.
The ‘90’s was when I moved back to L.A. I started doing freelance design work. I married a musical composer, who remains my partner to this day. Together, we bought a beautiful mid-century modern place that we still live in to this day. That house became another kind of project. The two of us would scour Craigslist or go to estate sales, looking for the perfect items with which we could decorate our new home. We found appropriate and historically correct pieces.
It was this mission that started me on my path to being eco-centric, in addition to placing an emphasis on recycling, and using reusable materials as the basis for my art. When I had a daughter in elementary school, I would collect all of her friend’s clothes and tie-dye them. Then, I would of sell them back to the school if they were doing a fundraiser benefit.
All of this got me to thinking: What drives me? What is my reason for being here? Am I getting closer to uncovering a kind of primal artistic truth? I guess throughout all of this, I’ve found my focus. It’s something that I’m both passionate about and skilled at, that also happens to be something that helps the planet on a larger scale.
That was where the idea came from to paint gemstones on recycled materials came from– it was the product of thirty-five years of trying to find myself.
Is there one ArtCenter alum who is doing work that you particularly admire?
I’m a fan of Jorge Pardo (BFA 88). His work has a real sense of humor, and a color and vibrancy that I admire. Is it Furniture? Design? Architecture? Art?
Jennifer Steinkamp (MFA 91) is another one. Her work with jewelry partially inspired the environmentally-influenced work I went on to do (painting gemstones on repurposed materials).
Contemporary Diamond Artist
by Benjamin Guttery G.G. of @thirdcoastgems
S. P. Harper
An artist of the times, this sculptor and painter creates eco-centric art that reveals the many forms of the diamond. S.P. Harper's grandfather was a diamantaire, or diamond cutter, but it was not until later in life when she realized how she could pay homage to his life's work. She attended prestigious art schools from Paris to L.A., then headed to New York City in the '80s to find work that was meaningful to her. During this "exploratory decade" of her life, she spent time at Studio54, the Mud Club and other Manhattan haunts that shaped her creativity and outlook on life.
Upon moving back to California, she started a family and began to discover her mission in life: pursuing her passion while saving the planet. Harper says that her time spent scouring estate sales for decor that would match her family home led her to upcycling, or transforming "waste" into something more desirable and usable. In addition to oil and acrylics, S.P. began using commonplace items such as handkerchiefs, milk crates, table cloths, bedspreads, sheets, metal, wood, shower curtains, and even prom dresses to transform into gemstone art pieces. Many of her pieces even include real diamond dust, another nod to her diamantaire Grandfather's work grinding down natural diamonds to reveal their beauty.
From her studies on the shape, cut, light return, fluorescence and phosphorescence of diamonds, S.P. Harper has created a fully encompassing body of work that strikes a chord inside of diamond lovers everywhere. Her work is represented by Cool Art House, an artist-centric gallery on the west coast.
S. P. Harper: Grandfather
Too young to know my grandfather Archie Picking as a diamond cutter, I imagine him working. The still life subject matter of cut gemstones fascinates me as I explore methods to imitate their mesmerizing light. Having painted gems for years, I now realize my indebtedness to Archie.
As Archie’s eyesight began to falter, he because a Pacific Electric Red Cars conductor, a green company I seek to emulate by practicing Ecocentric art. Just as Archie segued into a career using sustainable energy, I up-cycle refuse to become a desirable product.
“A rough diamond that has not been cut, is called a mineral, and appears as a tear drop, not emitting refracted light,” said Archie. “Not until I cut the stone do you see it’s bright light. In London, Marcel Tolkowsky engineered the round brilliant-cut in 1918. I follow this design of fifty eight facets to project the most dazzling light, which is brilliance. The prism rainbow colors are fire and the surface shine is luster,” he said after he had retired.
My paintings blend exquisite 20th century gemstone cuts with 21st century cutting-edge materials. By adopting iridescent, luminescent, phosphorescent, florescent and Interference paint, the repurposed and vintage surfaces are brought up-to-date. All fabric surfaces are gessoed three times to prepare the porous material to perform like primed canvas to support paint. Thank you grandad for the inspiration and I wish I could share with you my work today!
The Artist and the Diamantaire
by Virginia Chase Sutton
It is in the painter’s blood, this love of jewels, necessity
of creation. And her grandfather, a diamantaire, just knew
the shimmer of a radiant stone hidden inside a rough rock.
His granddaughter creates canvas backgrounds designed
with recycled pieces---a prom dress swatch, a tablecloth scrap,
even pieces of wallpaper. As she works on background, she
knows which jewel she will paint atop the base, already lovely,
now covered with transparent acrylic wash. Diamonds
are plentiful in imagination, in the way she holds the brush. Just
like her grandfather, she has a map, necessary to prepare the stone. O,
how lovely, the finished paintings, combination of what is reused, what is
her vision. Look carefully: behind the painting is a glimpse of a woman’s face
ripped from a magazine or perhaps a photo from a brochure. Bits of whatever
catches her eye, what will be behind the jewel and yet in front of it. Dreaminess.
and a steady hand to work this way, looking for what is striking, lustrous,
allowing her mind to take her where she needs to go. How similar
the methods her grandfather used when cutting. He held rocks and knew
their interior---sparkling, flames. At last, deeply in, he shaped
diamonds so lovely they could slip into a ring’s setting or circle
a woman’s throat. Glitter and glory, granddaughter and grandfather.
Family heritage steadily flowing, each an artist, each shining ornament.
Always deep into preparation, the two generations immersed in art.
Haiku
An unexpeted
glimmer, facets of new life
built from past visions.
written with love for S. P.
by Nin Yang
