THOUSAND OAKS, CA - Contemporary abstract paintings by Seyburn Zorthian of the Santa Ynez Valley are on display through Aug. 12 in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture at California Lutheran University.

“In the Rhythm” is a free exhibit of large-scale works in acrylic, oil and metal leaf on canvas. All of the paintings, which were produced over the last two years, are visual expressions of movement inspired by music.

Zorthian’s creative process is informed by her early exposure to jazz and her study of abstract calligraphy in Japan, where Shodou master Shiryu Morita trained her in traditional practices using enormous brushes with ink. She has spent decades refining her approach to composition and her use of color and Western non-ink media within this Eastern framework. In her current series, Zorthian’s first brushstroke usually became the bones of the composition, directing the course and character of each painting.

Zorthian paints from a studio at her family’s Buttonwood Farm Winery & Vineyard, where the labels feature her works.Her paintings have been exhibited at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, Rutgers University in New Jersey, the Municipal Museum in Kyoto, Shanxi Historical Art Museum in China and Galerie Tendri in Paris. Zorthian attended the San Francisco Art Institute and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts.

The gallery is located in the Soiland Humanities Center at 120 Memorial Parkway on the Thousand Oaks campus. It is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

For more information, contact curator Michael Pearce with the CLU Art Department at 805-444-7716.