Time From Other Places – Carried by Windswept at Wonzimer Gallery

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Time From Other Places – Carried by Windswept at Wonzimer Gallery by Juri Koll

Wind is potent and prescient, bringing time to us from other places, in precious moments we feel, see, smell. With this in mind, Genie Davis has curated an excellent new show, Windswept, at Wonzimer (a great space and crew) opening on March 21.

Windswept builds on 15 works from international artist’s Susan Ossman’s career as a painter with 14 other artists’ work of equally formidable insight and acumen. These works allow us to be in the moment, to stop and look at the fleeting, illusory elements, the bits and pieces we’re all made of.

Ossman’s “Pin The Wind,” represents for this writer the origin of the concept Davis has so adeptly assembled here. Made up of 2 panels that look as if they are 3, the beautiful and momentary view of sky blue above protects the orange under it, illuminates the earthy feel of each edge, and allows us to be here with it.

Motion, flow, and lush color combine in each of Ossman’s works, creating the sensation of a wind made of color and contrasts, including the wild wind that emanates from her “Dark Winds,” an astonishing oil and linen work that was created specificially for this exhibition.

Angelica Sotiriou’s collage “The Sound of Breath,” like much of her work, brings the moment forward with her free, open command of the brush and the elements she uses that sparkle, layer, and reach toward us, while Bruce Cockerill’s photograph, “Tumbleweed Sky,” below, is fleeting, transitory and yet starkly “now” as a photograph.

Diane Cockerill’s photographic image “Flurry” uses stop-motion technique to capture an image that makes you wait to see what happens next, and gives time and voice to the birds in flight.

“The Answer My Friend (Blowing in the Wind),” is Beth Elliott’s sculptural work, which brings a challenging number of physical elements to an equally challenging subject. How do we hold the fort, and keep the sail aloft, as it were, in a windstorm? How do we remember the things that might be taken away from us when forces out of our control overtake us? The cyanotype element, like a flag, makes us hope we do remember, and that the image will survive.

Each of the other works in this show deserve study, and equally anchor the show, the concept, and the time spent with it, including newly created installations by Dani Dodge, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, and Jason Jenn, each utilizing a variety of different elements, including, in one case, an actual tumbleweed.

Clouds, also windswept, as depicted utilizing recycled plastics from Nancy Voegeli-Curran, above.

The winds of personal change are a central part of Nancy Kay Turner‘s work, below.

 

There are also neon works that relate to the recent catastrophic windstorms in LA from Linda Sue Price, along with sculptural works that seem to have arrived as if carried by the wind from Scott Meskill and Eileen Oda, among the many fine artists exhibiting. In many ways, this entire exhibition is a wind-blown surprise.

In all, this immersive group exhibition features painted works by Susan Ossman in conjunction with sculptural, photographic, collage, video, and installation works by artists including Dani Dodge, Angelica Sotiriou, Beth Elliott, Linda Sue Price, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Diane Cockerill, Bruce Cockerill, Scott Meskill, Eileen Oda, Jason Jenn, Nancy Kay Turner,  Nancy Voegeli-Curan, and a video work from David Isakson. The show explores each artist’s own unique vision of wind, from oil and acrylic to  otherworldly mixed media.

Don’t miss the opening Friday, March 21 from 5 to 10 p.m., or the artist’s talk scheduled for Sunday, March 30 at 3 -5 p.m.  The show closes with a curatorial walk through on Thursday, April 17 with the gallery open all day and the walk through scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Regular gallery hours are 12-7 W-Sun, March 21 through April 20th. Go see it.

Wonzimer Gallery is located at 341-B S Avenue 17, Los Angeles, CA 90031 Website: https://www.wonzimer.com/ 

  • Juri Koll, VICA; photos by Genie Davis and as provided by the artists

Frieze and The Other Art Fair: David and Goliath

Posted on by Diversions LA

Frieze and The Other Art fair: David and Goliath by Nancy Kay Turner

The inimitable Frieze Art Fair is now 22 years old having begun in London in 2003 before crossing the pond to New York in 2012, and finally arriving in Los Angeles in 2019. While the venue has shifted from Paramount Studios in mid-city to the Westside, the fair remains mostly the same with a venue of over 100 galleries from all over the world. It is an intriguing mix of museum quality blue chip work alongside up and coming newly minted MFA’s, sprinkled among seasoned mid-career artists.

Perhaps it was the result of the politically charged environment and the recent apocalyptic wildfires that destroyed so many artists homes and studios, but this fair seemed a bit more somber. However, one of the first booths I saw was April Bey’s dazzling solo show at Los Angeles’ Vielmetter Gallery, highlighting her large -scale mixed media works that are a combination of politically charged imagery accentuated with neon colors. With this heady mixture of high and low brow textiles Bey interrogates the nature of identity, feminism, colonialism and taste with both flair and humor.

Just around the corner, New York’s Tilton Gallery had a stunning show devoted to the subtle collages, assemblages and low relief sculptures by Noah Purifoy that elegantly use found materials, such as charred remains of fires (from the Watts uprising), wires and rusted metal. Weathered and worn, each of these objects tells a political and personal story with exceptional grace.

Next, I saw a group exhibit at UK’s Maureen Gallery where Los Angeles native Esther Pearl Watson’s tiny paintings startled me.– especially the one with scrawled text that read “LA Fires Jan 7, 2025 evacuated the fires I had to dodge trucks that blew over. What next?” She paints a hellish landscape filled with fire and mayhem with a flying saucer looming. Stylistically akin to outsider artists, her work, though simplified and child -like, captivates.

Narrative paintings were abundant in this Frieze especially among younger artists. Lenworth McIntosh’s dreamy narrative paintings, painted with all shades of browns and ochres, are memory pieces celebrating his Jamaican roots filled with food, music, religion and community. Henri Paul Broyard, another young artist, shows spray and acrylic paintings at Tyler Park Presents, one of the LA galleries in the Focus section of the fair curated by Essence Harden. Broyard paints slightly worn intimate interiors filled with familiar but sometimes oddly strange objects culled from photos and memories.

Almine Rech’s gorgeous multi-hued “more is more” installation of Tomokazu Matsuyama’s is delightful. The intricate anime inspired paintings combine Eastern and Western aesthetics remind me of Masami Teraoka’s humorous versions of Ukiyo Japanese prints. David Zwirner’s booth has a swell group show of paintings by John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage, Luc Tuymans and my favorite, a large Dana Schutz from 2008.

The best part of this fair is discovering an artist like Greta Schodl, exhibited at the Richard Saltoun Gallery. Schodl, now 95 and still working, has text -based work that she calls visual poetry. Schodl writes on ironing boards, rice paper, old book pages and marble with immaculate repeating script until the words become both more and less than words. They become a design. They cleave to the object that they name. Elegant, delicate, her works are compelling and unforgettable objects once seen.

Another artist, the incomparable Betye Saar, soon to be 100 years old and yes, still robustly creating works, is represented here by a kinetic installation honoring Zora Neale Hurston. Saar’s work is evocative of time, memory, and place. Always beautifully crafted and refined, Saar’s impeccable craftsmanship elevates the worn and fragmented materials.

The Michael Rosenfield Gallery has a fabulous colorful Betye Saar from 1966 composed on tin that is nailed perfectly with tiny brads. Also at the Rosenfield gallery are several beautiful Romare Beardon mixed media collages from 1977-8 that look fresh and relevant and very 2025.

Although It’s almost impossible to see everything, and I always rue the booths I missed – it is always a worthwhile experience to be surrounded by new and unfamiliar artists, galleries, collectors and the artist community itself -who I must add, feel that the fair is too expensive for many to attend.

Contrasting with Frieze, The Other Art Fair was founded in London in 2011 by Ryan Stanier and now is held in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles London, Melbourne, Sydney, and Toronto and is focused on promoting emerging artists in a smaller more intimate setting. Artist-centric, with all the participants present to talk about their work, this fair is more accessible if the work itself is uneven.

This year’s fair moved from the westside to the eastside which made it easier to park. It is well organized and set up to help artists sell their work with wrapping booths and cashiers to facilitate the sales. Featured right at the entrance were two of my favorite “booths” featuring Josh Cabello and Kim Garcia, in a two person show that was quite extensive, curated by Feia. Kim Garcia’s works range from small mixed media flat wall pieces with bits and pieces of family photographs embedded in the resin, to floor sculptures, and a stunning large-scale portal that all fairgoers had to walk through.

The portal is a monumental structure made of resin, transparent photographs, volcanic sand, glass, cement and steel that speaks to memory, identity, history and is an homage to her immigrant family.

Josh Cabello’s large self -portraits celebrate the queer body in a mystical and magical landscape that shimmers and glows.

Nearby is Judy Baca’s all-new segment of the epic and ongoing The Great Wall of Los Angeles. This epic historic mural segment highlights the historic 1968 student protest walk outs.

Most of the artists were from California, especially the Bay Area and Central Coast, including Katie Murken, who had a large solo show of her mixed media works on found wooden pallets. Her imagery evoked John Steinbeck and the 1930s era, with weathered broken pallets and faded fabric transfers that suggest intimate long-gone interiors, abandoned houses, and forgotten stories shrouded in mystery.

The artists here were all available to share their stories, and their can do spirit was infectious along with their obvious resilience, determination, and joy of sharing the act of creating.

  • Nancy Kay Turner; photos by Nancy Kay Turner, additional Frieze photos by Genie Davis