End Page: Immortalize Your House
01/01/2005
The Fainting Couch in Los Angeles, a furniture and antiques store on Beverly Boulevard, does not normally do double duty as an art gallery, but owner Claudia Benvenuto made an exception upon seeing the work of international artist Andrea Tana. “I connected with her paintings immediately,” says Benvenuto, whose store showcased Tana’s paintings and etchings last autumn. “Her work seems like it’s from another time–a bygone era where people still took a moment to sit down and relax. [Her pieces] have a historical and romantic feeling that complemented the antiques of our store very well.”The American-born Tana divides her time between London, Paris and Italy, locales that have greatly influenced her work. “I frequently paint what is around me, whether it’s an interior of my studio or landscapes of the places I’m visiting,” Tana says. “But no matter where I am, the atmospheres I paint are always light and cheerful–I’m not interested in spreading despair.”
Inspired by Japanese woodblock painting, as were Matisse and Picasso, Tana has developed a body of work with international mass appeal. “Ikea liked what I was doing so much that they asked to sell posters of my work,” she says of the Danish furnishings retailer, which has sold more than 1 million of her posters worldwide. Tana’s contemporary work bears a vintage aesthetic that creates an air of coziness and familiarity. “I’ve been told that my paintings let people in,” she says. “The interiors I depict are my own, so they reflect something real and relatable.”
While large-scale corporate commissions have occupied her work schedule for several years, the artist is content to be back in her studio, focusing on her more personal work. “I started doing more etchings because I wanted to reproduce certain pieces,” says Tana, who is currently collaborating with poet Derek Walcott on a book for the Gallerie Maeght in Paris. “I like the idea of limited-edition prints that give more people access to my work.”
Andrea Tana, andrea@andreatana.com
The Fainting Couch, 323.930.0106