Blue

Ochi is pleased to present Blue, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by artist Claudia Parducci. This is Parducci’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition will be on view at Ochi, located at 3301 W Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, from February 18 through March 29, 2025. A reception will be held at the gallery on Saturday, March 1st, from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM PST.

Blue features monochrome pastel canvases that mark Parducci’s return to the studio after a rupture in her practice following the loss of her husband, the artist Peter Alexander. She eventually began again, limiting her materials to those left behind by her late partner: a handful of canvases, some sawhorses, and a box of blue soft pastels.

What began as a creative expression of grief became a rigorous exploration of impermanence and chance. Parducci set strict boundaries, using only raw pigment and canvases the same size her late partner preferred. She rubbed a “primary” surface with blue pastel, causing excess pigment dust to fall onto a "secondary" surface below; the act of creating the primary object resulted in the forming of another. She observed an additional rule that she would not manipulate the receiving object. What emerged was a series of works that embody both chance and impermanence, echoing the way the material world of organisms does not entirely disappear, but evolves over time.

These works are primarily a documentation of the process of their making, a coupling of two things happening simultaneously. By virtue of borrowing another artist’s supplies, the series marks a visual departure from Parducci’s previous work while extending her long exploration of the remarkable human capacity for regeneration.

In an expression of devotion and transference, Blue is an homage to love and loss, chance and transformation, and the dizzying elasticity of time.