Art Los Angeles Contemporary: Contemporary Art Mirrors Contemporary Life

Posted on by Diversions LA

19554699_10213749627082104_8416465541305511785_n

If art is a mirror of the soul, then the eclectic art at Art Los Angeles Contemporary this weekend mirrored a global soul that’s skewed but sound.

Local and international galleries showcased a wide range of mediums and styles, but two consistent themes held true: there were many works that touched on or skewered today’s political and social world, and there were many works that displayed a trenchant wit.

Below, the large-scale sculptural installation of The Holy Land, created of styrofoam and polyurethane by Folkert de Jong. From Lincoln to Snoop Dog, the works subversively and delightfully play with political art from Mount Rushmore to the Lincoln Memorial while touching on our obsession with the worship of cultural figures.

26907223_10213749620161931_6912895683780719476_n

26992031_10213749620201932_8337403353868274389_n

Nothing overt above, but Pae White’s “Untitled (Popcorn)” riffs on the heaviness of insubstantial things in this 4 foot marble work.

27066775_10213749621041953_6492394459313974229_n 

Above from Chicago’s Shane Campbell Gallery, the work of David Leggett. Several works referenced “Black Heaven,” in an amusing but highly pointed poke at racial politics and perceptions.  Police brutality and toxic masculinity were other topics the artist addressed.

26992342_10213749622281984_5404027418979213741_n

Above, Kendall Carter’s “Effigy for a New Normalcy VIII, Love for my Father”  is a one of the artist’s series of works offering a look at race, gender, hip hop culture, and both racial and societal history.

Below, from 313 Art Project,  chains that bind.

27072979_10213749621161956_2498924310522433683_n

Below, at Glendale’s The Pit and The Pit II booths, pop culture gets a scouring. Lively, fun, and scathing – see Lisa Simpson’s tattoos, among a series of works from FriendsWithYou.

26994311_10213749622401987_4339822540653476601_n

Below, it’s a dark world at Klowden Mann. Debra Scacco’s “Tempus omnia dabit (Time will give everything)“, acrylic, ink and pigment on lasercut paper, background; shards of black glass poke skyward in the foreground.

27332061_10213749623522015_4081332275109386898_n

Below, poignant doors to nowhere – Sayre Gomez’ farewell to the long-standing, now shuttered, Chinatown icon Hop Louie. Somehow, this closure and its reverent, lovely, large-scale depiction is emblematic of so many things lost and gone.

26991705_10213749624642043_2366316076898348921_n

25550248_10213749624722045_4696232021623150094_n 27066785_10213749624802047_8798225509080362894_n 27072269_10213749624842048_3222530490083136541_n 26908011_10213749625962076_5671609192999232434_n 26992602_10213749627002102_9033900912122215611_n 26991807_10213749627162106_3356768304578725023_n 

Among the most overtly political – and the most whimsical – were the lively works of Federico Solmi at L.A.’s Luis de Jesus booth, above. Animated video on plexiglass with gold leaf, silver leaf, and acrylic, the images were dazzling and delightful, even as they offered a pungent commentary on the 45th president, above,  “The Eminent Manipulator” in his inaugural dance.

19642707_10213749628002127_1622813192665332888_n

27336250_10213749628122130_6366119020545672152_n

26993808_10213749628362136_4594232836066706293_n

Above, Matthew Brandt’s “Families gather in prayer at Restauracion in South L.A.,” a subtly glittering mosaic created with rhinestuds on canvas. Poignant and reverential, the work was exhibited by Paris-based Gallery Praz-Dellavallade.   

Overall, ALAC’s strong show was made stronger by the undercurrents running through the exhibition. Our inchoate contemporary lives are far less so when illuminated by art.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

An Amazing Body of Work: Plus at Ark Gallery

Posted on by Diversions LA

26907911_10213709513999302_8536313807273310698_n

Plus, now at Ark Gallery in Altadena through March 18th, is a simply dazzling “body” of work. These luminous nude images are profoundly beautiful, in an ethereal curation that changes as the light changes in the gallery.

26903851_10213709520759471_6357778749247424987_n

Over the course of 90 minutes at the opening today, shadows fell and daylight shifted into darkness. A number of the works are suspended archival pigment prints on transparency film. These came alive and danced, just as their subject moved and danced in creating this astonishing work.

26907831_10213709521079479_5925140757699576684_n

Kristine Schomaker’s solo exhibition is both simple and profound, revealing powerful, intimate images that spark a deep conversation about body image and beauty.

Schomaker has consistently – in a variety of different works that we’ve had the pleasure to witness evolve over the past four years – boldly discussed dealing with an eating disorder, body image, and self-esteem. This work continues and transcends that discussion.

27067560_10213709513639293_6432635099807680117_n

“As an artist, my work is always about exploration, experimentation, education, communication. It is about me. It is about my life. It is an autobiography,” Schomaker asserts.

Plus was a spontaneous creation by the artist during a hotel stay: post- sunrise serendipity and forgetting to turn off a bathroom light, formed the opportunity to shape her new body of work. 

A sliding bathroom door with frosted glass, a glow behind that door, an artist’s eye. The inspiration of art history, Reubens, Arbus. And an iPhone.

26907646_10213709514519315_7314143946228724758_n

Schomaker playfully began shooting photos on a timer and on blast, feeling free, playful, and having fun. With the frosted glass between her body and the camera she was able to create silhouettes that “focused on form, line and shape.” She began to see her body as an instrument for creating the beauty of art.

26991871_10213709513719295_6003651573449095206_n

“Through art, I have learned to face my fears in order to move forward and love myself. Or at least try to,” Schomaker says. “This new body of work is about confrontation, weight, shape, excess, history, voyeurism, objectification, control, confinement, containment, self esteem, confidence, bravery, revealing and concealing, authenticity.”

26815202_10213709514999327_4960088603226686546_n

Deeply personal, the key words that describe this exhibition to viewers include transcendent, joyful, and evocative. The framed prints on fine art paper and the suspended transparency films that both comprise this exhibition each offer depictions of the wild wonder of the human body.

27066834_10213709530679719_1242273371377953425_n

They reveal our capacity for joy; the ability of our bodies to allow that joy. They are defiant and bold, delicate shadows, triumphant and infused with longing. 

26815169_10213709522919525_5951305155590434536_n

19248019_10213709520799472_7504031144729174387_n

The beautiful curation, in which viewers can stand between and weave among the large-scale suspended images, as if they too were reflected in that hotel room’s mirrored glass, adds to the overall magical quality of the exhibition.

26993945_10213709523919550_1013290131043963147_n

There is something primal, something pure about the shadowed images Schomaker has taken of herself.

“It is a hyper-personal exploration of being overweight. It is about taking control of my body in a time where #metoo is about our bodies being controlled by someone else,” she says.

26805318_10213709514599317_8383383952192807134_n

She calls it liberating, reclaiming, and an ode to the lost love of one’s self.

27072743_10213709534919825_3780559991854152666_n

26815378_10213709514559316_4292239054397969426_n

The work here is quite simply what art is supposed to be: vulnerable and inspiring, moving and relatable, lovely to see, provocative to contemplate. If art is a mirror, then we are seeing ourselves, our fears, our pleasures, our vindication. If art is a call to action, then the empowerment of these photographic works cannot be denied. If art is about capturing and preserving beauty, then these somewhat amorphous forms, their luscious light, their visual – and yes, spiritual, glow certainly does that as well.

26907244_10213709518279409_5169157043549455804_n

In short, Schomaker has hit this out of the ballpark, and Kira Vollman’s beautiful open space at Ark is the perfect setting to explore images of exceptional luminosity.

26907272_10213709513679294_5865322924331071083_n

An Artist Talk is scheduled for February 11, 3-5pm; a closing reception will be held March 18, 2-5pm.

ARK is located at 2599 Fair Oaks Ave in Altadena.

– Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis 

 

 

The Breaking Point: Documentary as Thriller

Posted on by Diversions LA

BreakingPoint_2000x2850_preview

With The Breaking Point, three-time U.S. academy award-winning documentary director Mark Jonathan Harris teams with Ukrainian director Oles Sanin for this American-Ukrainian production, a thoroughly compelling thriller of a documentary about the War for Democracy in the Ukraine. Sanin directed the Ukraine’s official entry for the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. 

Together, the directors have created powerful tension which builds exponentially throughout the film,  as they examine a country transformed by a democratic revolution. The multiple protagonists, who have given up their lives to fight a Russian invasion, are each provocative storytellers, bringing their personal experiences to the insightful analysis of a war that has killed over 10,000 people and displaced 1.9 million Ukrainians.

It’s a harrowing story, and Harris, known for carefully culling those he casts, has shaped a taut tale.

Essentially, Breaking Point examines revolution and war on an intimate, personal level. And, it offers a potent warning against allowing foreign powers into the election process and the press — a warning that should resonate strongly with viewers in the U.S. as Russian interference into our own election continues to be investigated.

Breaking Point begins with a poetic voice-over on a foggy road, as one of the film’s subjects, discusses his belief that “beauty, art, and love” will save the world. But these beliefs have been put the ultimate test. He notes that when “they started killing people – it was the breaking point, when people realized helping from a distance was not enough anymore.” From a look at a bleak and bombed out airport still under attack, the film neatly sequees back to 2013, when a social media post drew huge crowds to Maiden Square in the nation’s capital, Kiev, to protest the Ukrainian president’s refusal to allow the country to join the EU.

With tense and compelling editing and the juxtaposition of a variety of stories, the film describes how the protestors “lost the fear of death,” and takes a long hard look at the “most blatant land grab” for the Ukraine’s territory by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and how the revolution against Russia’s interference led to the formation of a people’s army.

Director_preview

Above, Mark Jonathan Harris

Harris and Sanin expertly weave stories such as that of an investigative reporter run off the road and beaten by thugs affiliated with the Ukrainian government, with that of resistance leaders, and political scholars.

The shocking recognition of Russian influence in the media, as well as the government itself, should strike a familiar chord for viewers – the phrase “fake news”  is all too real in the Ukraine. From photoshopped images spreading lies about protesters to paid actors portraying pro-Russian Ukrainian citizens, the manipulation is chilling and well-orchestrated. In describing the Russian propaganda machine, the point is made that “Russians understand western media better than western media does. They understand the short attention span… the flood of events.”

In short, Breaking Point offers an entirely relatable story, a tribute to the spirit of the Ukrainian people and their belief that they could win their fight and recover.

With subjects narrating their stories in an interwoven quilt of first-person events, this harrowing look at the Ukraine is both raw and real.  Viewers will find themselves on the edge of their seats, as the events that began with a protest on The Maiden unfold.

The underlying message of the film could not be more timely, that the future of European democracy, and perhaps of democracy itself demands that Russia stop undermining the west. In the Ukraine, ordinary citizens took on those demands; in today’s U.S. political climate, the film is a must-see.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by filmmakers

 

 

Four Times the Art at Gabba Gallery

Posted on by Diversions LA
Now through January 27th at Gabba Gallery, four strong solo shows in a range of mediums offer a bold beginning to the new year.
CyrusHowlett_GiveandTake
With Give and Take, Cyrus Howlett offers a bright, vivid palette of red, yellow, and aqua against raw and uncoated wood. His images are of hands.
CyrusHowlett_Want
Powerful, graceful hands are enigmatically suspended in an undefined space, offering images that have overtones of AI and VR and reveal the potential for understanding through gesture.
Dytch66_Evolution
With Evolution, Dytch66’s lush, hyper-realistic style is a beautiful outgrowth of his street art. The LA-based artist uses spray paint to create these detailed images, shaping resonant, graceful works with amazing precision.
Dytch66_Hollywood
Dytch66_TheKing
Above, Dytch66’s “The King.”
Spacegoth_TheVoid
Spacegoth creates a world here inhabited by playful devils and those humans who have left this mortal plane. There is a sense of the ominous and the playful coexisting side by side in these works, which at times feature words as well as images. In short, she’s filling The Void. 
Some images emerge from that void with a delightful sharp touch of the whimsical, as below, with “Nobody.”
Spacegoth_nobody
Above, “Nobody wants to talk to me, but everyone wants to walk with me”
Spacegoth_I_spent
Other images, such as the above “I Spent a lot of time in the background,” have a darker resonance.
KateKelton_Artstar
With ARTSTAR, Kate Kelton uses acrylics on found and assembled woods, in an exploration of immortality and stardom.
KateKelton_Cooper
KateKelton_Zambrano

Her gorgeous black and white works have a throwback quality, as if they were created in another time or another realm. Beautifully evocative, her work is both romantic and fully alive, a celebration of the past and the promise of eternity.

The uniqueness of each artist’s work gives Gabba a strong start to 2018, with four fully-realized solo shows all in one fun space.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by Gabba Gallery