Eve Lateiner is a painter who works primarily with fabric, dye, and oil paint. She was born and raised in New York City and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She earned her BA with a major in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and was most recently included in the Cutlog New York art fair by Bleecker Street Arts Club in May 2014. She has been included in various group exhibitions in New York City and surrounding areas.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. I grew up in New York City and was living in Brooklyn until this spring, when I moved to Los Angeles. I am a painter.
How has living in Los Angeles affected your art practice? My life in Los Angeles is very grounded in nature. There are pomegranate and fig trees on the streets in my neighborhood and the smell of Jasmine flowers wafts down the block. There is stillness in the air and peaceful energy that has influenced my approach to the work; my moves are more considered and less frenetic.
What kinds of things are influencing your work right now? The golden light in the west that we get to see for short periods of time on the east coast, but it seems to linger forever in California; which is very in line with my palette.
Tell us about your work process and how it develops. I start with a fabric and manipulate it in some way before stretching it. I might dye, sew, cut, rip, or weave it. I sometimes combine conventional painting surfaces like canvas/linen or silkscreen mesh with fragments of used fabrics. Often I complete the piece with several layers of oil paint.
How long have you lived in Los Angeles and what brought you there? I have lived in Los Angeles since this past spring. I moved here because I felt it was time for a change of scenery and a new challenge. I love New York City and often travel back, but I was excited by the idea of a new adventure out west.
What do you want a viewer to walk away with after seeing your work? I want the viewer to feel my hand in the work, to see that it has been touched in an intimate way. I want the work to feel like they are viewing a window into something personal in me or evoke a memory or emotion in themselves.
What’s your absolute favorite place in the city/the world to be? I love to be around animals, especially horses. I grew up spending my free time in the Hudson Valley. My fondest memories are spending all day at a local stable where I would ride horses and do chores. These days I appreciate being able to spend time during the summer in the area. I always enjoy walking around Manhattan visiting galleries, museums and absorbing the urban dynamism. Two very different energies, but I appreciate both equally.
Describe your current studio or workspace. My studio is located in my home on the east side of Los Angeles. It’s small, but my work is small in scale. There are doors that open onto a patio full of greenery and radiant light.
If you were a drink what drink would you be? I used to be a dirty martini, but now I’m a green juice.
Can you share one of the best or worst reactions you have gotten as a result of your work? One of my favorite responses was that looking at my work was like “looking up someone’s skirt.”
What are you reading right now? I just finished Alan Watts’s The Meaning of Happiness.