"home" a video installation by artist Mia Babalis and New Paintings by Deborah Martin June 11-July 3 2009

The sacred and mundane live together perfectly in the boarded up house. Sitting silently like coffins or mausoleums, these modern ruins evoke a past, both empty and full- as much here as gone.

When they go, not just structure is gone but an entire past; a time, place, and people we may never know. Many homes, like these, don’t meet Historical Preservation standards, but are valuable none-the-less. Does the memory of these rooms live in someone's mind and heart far from the place where this house stands? How many homes are connected to our hearts in this way, how many places housed our dreams and memories?

Like time that seems to vanish yet persists, “home” is in our beings, in a formless, placeless domain.

About Mia Babalis and Deborah Martin

Mia Babalis is a Los Angeles based artist living in Santa Monica, CA. Before becoming a visual artist, Babalis had a long and successful career as a modern dancer in New York, receiving critical acclaim performing in the companies of Alvin Ailey, Ballet Hispanico, Lar Lubovitch, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

In 2005, Babalis graduated with honors with a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, and received a jury award for her work “overunderinbetween.” She has created a variety of installations in traditional gallery settings, as well as site-specific works that transform existing architectural space, combing the use of video, form, and the movement of the viewer, to explore temporal-spatial experience.

Deborah Martin is a downtown Los Angeles based gallery director, painter, fine art photographer and art instructor. Martin received a BFA and BS in Art Education from The Museum School of Fine Arts and Tufts University, respectively. Martin’s current work in progress titled “America” documents the abandonment of what was once known as America’s heartland.

Babalis and Martin met recently by chance and immediately began connecting with one another based on their mutual interest in documenting “home.” Both artists share a concern for the history of place and time and believe whole-heartedly in the importance of historical preservation.

“home” runs June 11th through July 3rd at Deborah Martin Gallery, 209 West 5th Street in the Spring Arts Tower, Downtown Los Angeles. 310-428-6464.

Open for the Downtown Art Walk Thursday June 11th, 2009 12-9pm
Artist’s Opening Reception 7-9pm

Artist Talk & Benefit Saturday June 20th 7-10 pm Live Music by musician/actor/filmmaker Paul Hipp and special guests…