ENCINITAS, CA — (November 5, 2009) — Lux Art Institute, San Diego’s first LEED-certified interactive art destination, will welcome Iva Gueorguieva as the first resident artist of 2010. Los Angeles-based Gueorguieva will create a large-scale abstract painting, measuring approximately 7 by 10 feet, while residing at Lux from Saturday, January 16 to Saturday, February 6. Visitors can “see art happen” while Gueorguieva is in the studio and view her completed work through March 17, 2010.

The exhibit will feature Gueorguieva’s tumultuous, acrylic-laden canvases with dizzying brushstrokes, loud colors, complex spatial configurations and frenetic energy abound. Vaguely recognizable objects, dismembered body parts, hints of architecture and obscure characters – grotesque, comic, even tragic in their tattered states – are barely revealed and even seem poised to disintegrate. Yet they all come together, curiously juxtaposed, on canvases heaving with lurid hues, swirling spaces and sharp-edged marks to depict seemingly futuristic worlds where an underlying sense of menace lurks.

It is the process of painting that Gueorguieva makes evident in these chaotic, dynamic works. But as she bleeds abstraction into narrative, despite the absence of any static image, themes of beauty, violence, isolation, sex and death are exposed.

“Having Iva with us for four weeks, creating one of the largest paintings of her career, will be a magical experience for all of us,” said Lux Director Reesey Shaw. “The roiling power and energy sweeping through the layered imagery the artist pulls out of her abstract landscapes will be spectacular at this scale.”

Born in Bulgaria, Gueorguieva emigrated to the United States in 1990 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She presently teaches drawing and painting at UCLA. Gueorguieva received her B.A. in philosophy from Goucher College in Baltimore and her M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Her solo exhibitions include shows at Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif; Carl Berg Projects, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Electric Works, San Francisco; Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, Calif.; Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles; Heriard Cimino Gallery, New Orleans; and Stephen Stux, New York. She has participated in group exhibitions at Ben Maltz Gallery, Los Angeles; Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada; and Samson Projects, Boston.

About Lux Art Institute

Lux Art Institute, located in Encinitas, Calif., is redefining the museum experience with the region's only artist-in-residence program that invites artists to live and work on site, while producing a commissioned work of art – start to finish. This one-of-a-kind institution invites visitors to not only "see art," but also to "see art happen."

Throughout each year, Lux invites several significant regional, national and international artists to participate in its residency. Visitors from across the country are able to participate in exclusive liaison-led tours, providing intimate access to the artist-in-residence, the artist's exhibition and the museum's permanent collection of indoor and outdoor art. Lux also offers a wide range of innovative programming for all ages.

The recipient of the San Diego Architectural Foundation's top design award, the Grand Orchid, and the first art museum in California awarded LEED certification for new construction, Lux is located alongside one of Southern California's few remaining coastal wetlands. The five-acre site also overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.

Through its Phase II Capital Campaign, Lux plans to add 25,000 square feet of galleries and classrooms. Once completed, the new building will also feature a hilltop plaza and a series of gardens climbing between the galleries and the Artist Pavilion.

Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 South El Camino Real in Encinitas, Calif. Hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and cost is $10 for two visits. For more information about donations, memberships, volunteer opportunities and more, visit http://www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760-436-6611.