Keystone Gallery is pleased to present PAGES, a solo exhibition of new works by Lea Feinstein. Opening at Keystone Gallery in DTLA, March 19th from 4-7PM. Painted in vibrant colors with Flashe vinyl emulsion on Tyvek, Feinstein mines the rich artistic tradition of text as image. This tradition stretches from medieval illuminated manuscripts and concrete poetry, to Paul Klee and Bauhaus typography; from Jasper Johns, Jenny Holzer, Lawrence Weiner, and Ed Ruscha to graffiti writers like Retna. In Pages, Feinstein uses words as pictures. The words are largely drawn from the artist’s own writings—poems from the early 2000s. The layered texts are rendered intentionally illegible, creating rich tumbled surfaces that ask to be decoded. Her choice of text informs the shape, color, and temperament of each painting. In some, large uppercase letters form stacks of linking chains that create illusory depth. In others, entire lines of lower case text cascade across the surface of the work. Others seem an invented language and script, or suggest Hindi or Arabic alphabets. This work is a striking departure from her four-year lyrical and painterly Succulent Living series begun after her move to LA from the Bay Area. Although the succulent paintings are often used as the initial ground for her new paintings, her palette has intensified as she layers the surfaces with texts, bringing attention to their abstract shapes as well as to their meanings.