The Happy Lion is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Allison Cortson. Using her friends as subjects, Cortson’s intimate portraits are exquisitely rendered using her signature materials of dust and oil. Cortson gathers dust from the environments pictured and re-situates her subjects in the reconstituted spaces. Cortson has also added powered paint to her repertoire of particles, with several works using this material in place of dust. Allison’s unique approach to representation results in portraits that feel concrete yet ephemeral, evoking the timelessness of matter. Allison Cortson was born in Santa Monica, California. She received her B.A. in Art from the University of California, Los Angeles and her MFA from the California Institute for the Arts. She has had solo shows at Galerie Michael Janssen in Berlin, Germany and at Galerie Filomena Soares in Lisbon, Portugal. Recent group exhibitions include Painting a Better Present, Pictures from the Diezy7 Collection at Sala Naos, Santander, Spain and L.A. Potential, at HangART-7, in Salzburg, Austria. Allison Cortson lives and works in Los Angeles.