Froggy Becomes Is Fabulous, Edgy Fun

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Coming of age never looked this filled with magical realism. Offering a funny, sharp commentary on growing up rough with an ogre of a father and a mother in love with the family priest, A Froggy Becomes is a fast-moving 75-minute play that offers a smart gut punch along with its belly laughs.

A powerhouse Sandra Kate Burck (above, post-performance) is middler schooler Bumpy Diggs, living in the material world – as the Madonna soundtrack excerpts imply – in the 1980s. Her father (Peter Breitmayer) inhabits his ogre costume while Bumpy tries to shape her misbegotten frog-based science project, her friends tease her, the prettiest mean girl is dating Bumpy’s main crush, and her mother carries on a secret affair with a cowardly but sexually enthralled priest.

As written by Becky Wahlstrom and directed by Pat Towne, the play vibrates with wit and poignancy. Colorful sets contrast with an ominous sense of the mysterious goings on in the woods near Bumpy’s home, her crush’s callous desires,  and her father’s brutality. Her resillience is the key to her success with both her mocked science project, and as viewers can see, her plucky survival.

Wahlstrom’s vivid emotional palette fits with the bright set design intentionally, the writer says “Puberty is a time when colors,
smells, words, and kisses are vividly electric. I think that kind of passion is still there. We just need to wake it up every once in a while.”

It’s a jubilant play, one filled with hope and the strong belief that carrying on is what we must do. “Bumpy chooses life no matter what, and she wants you to join her,” Wahlstrom says.

The exuberance of Burck’s lead portrayal engages and defines the play, which is expertly performed all around. Smart, fast-moving dialog propels the action forward, and the play’s single act moves so dynamically that viewers can’t help but be swept up in the highly fraught fun and vicissitudes that make up Bumpy’s life. A Froggy Becomes is a fine light shining in those dark woods that grow near everyone’s adolescent home.

The Open Fist Theatre Company performs the play runs through April 13 at Atwater Village Theater Fridays and
Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. General admission to all performances is $30,  with $25 tickets available for seniors and veterans, and $20 tickets are available to those under 30.  Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave in Los Angeles, CA 90039.

  • Genie Davis, photos: Genie Davis and courtesy of Open First.

Quick Take – Santa Ana’s OCCCA Offers An Exciting Urban Closing Tonight

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URBAN EXPRESSION is a vibrant, exciting mix of photography, installation, video, painted, and collage works. As such it successfully explores a wide range of themes from urban spaces to culture and social issues and the personal. This is fresh and fine work.

Both intimate and experimental – as well as experiential – the show was juried by Kelly RISK Graval. Artists include:  Orell Anderson, Timothy Armstrong, Audineh Asaf, Aaron Bernard, Leslie Brown, Diane Cockerill, Gianne de Genevraye, Voytek Glinkowski, Tanner Goldbeck, Rob Grad, Kara Greenwell, Brian Hernandez E.E. Jacks, Nicola Katsikis, Jason Leith, Kathe Madrigal, Don Manderson, Debra Manville, Stuart McCall, Maidy Morhous, Veru Narula, Robin Repp, Gareth Seigel, Stephanie Sydney, Randy Wheeler, and Elyse Wyman.

Among the standouts were Jason Leith‘s moving charcoal and acrylic on tent fly “Andy and Ozzy: Grieving and Blessing,” among other powerful, central work in the exhibition by this artist…

and Elyse Wyman’s merging of photography with plastic and acrylic and collage, with the human torso presenting a landscape and an admonishment to “Watch Downhill Speed.”

Diane Cockerill’s evocative, involving street photography includes her breathtaking full color “Eye Catching,” a capture of a street mural with a homeless man passing grey and unseen in the foreground; her black and white “Lost Angeles” also uses a wonderful combination of street scene with street art.

Stephanie Sydney’s “Triple Exposure two” is a wild splash of color in an entirely urban sea that vibrates with intensity;  terrific images from Rob Grad and Tanner Goldbeck were also espeically memorable.

Can’t make in person? Visit a 3D view of the exhibition here. 

Elsewhere in Santa Ana, the Grand Central Art Center is currently showing, through May 12th, a riveting video essay by Coco Fusco “Your Eyes Will Be An Empty Word,” and Hings Lim’s fierce “Specter at the Gate,”  evoking an often forgotten event on the 1906 burning of Santa Ana’s Chinatown.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

Vivid Watercolors Win The Lazarus Watercolor Competition at TAG

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Above, Bob Chew, judges and watercolorist Sally Lamb and Shelley Lazarus

The Lazarus Watercolor Competition at TAG Gallery has announced its winners at a jubilant awards event held March 16th.

The show was juried by Lazarus and renowned watercolorist Sally Lamb in the second annual event for TAG. The exhibition received applicants from across the U.S. It honors Lazarus, a current and founding member of TAG since 1993.  The competition judges awarded three cash awards and six awards of excellence. 160 entries were received, and 30 chosen for the gallery’s exhibition.

According to Bob Chew, president of The Artists Gallery, “Each year we see the Lazarus Watercolor Competition growing in size and [art community] awareness.” He notes that for next year’s exhibition, he asserts that “We need to create a larger space for those artists selected. We’re just seeing the interest in watercolors grow substantially, and we’re excited about being a part of this growth.” Chew adds that the competition “brings out some of the best watercolor artists and their work in the world today.”

With this wealth of talent in mind, the gallery is already making plans to expand gallery space devoted to the exhibition and to line-up jurors well-known in the world of watercolor painting.

Along with increasing the exhibition space, he relates that “We likely will need to start a bit earlier next year as submissions to the competition increase and the word gets out not only in California, but nationally, and even internationally.” The delicate and vibrant work of watercolorists is championed by Chew. “Watercolor painting takes extraordinary skill in drawing, understanding the flow of color, and working with a very delicate process,” he explains. “It’s an amazing technique that is the reverse process of oil painting, which is my specialty.”

He adds that watercolorists create art that is challenging to make and can seem mysterious to those outside the field. “It takes years to perfect,” Chew states. “The work that you see in this exhibition is some of the best watercolor art in the world.”

The cash prizes awarded included $750 for first place., awarded to Deborah Swan-McDonald for her work “Inner Sanctum,” a hauntingly evocative portrait of a thoughtful young man in a hoodie, lost in contemplation…

…$500 for second place winner Carolina Dealy, “It’s A Southern Thing,” a joyous still life depicting the contents of a small town store window that aptly captures a sense of place and time…

…and $250 for third place winner Cecily Willis’ piece, “Nancy.” This work is a delicately lovely work depicting a young girl, a dog, and an older woman resting on a sofa. A window opens to a fecund green world beyond the living room in which they sit.

Above, Honorable Mention awardee Kelly Hildner’s “Afternoon at Barker Dam.”

Honorable mentions were awarded to Toby Chaum for “Arroyo View;” Chuck Door for “Prospect Park;” Lynn Gadal for “Sky Gazers II;” Kelly Hildner for “Afternoon at Barker Dam;” David Lang for his “Paris at Night;” and Apinya Srikhwanthong for “Orchid Whispers.”

The exhibition ends March 29th; TAG is open from 11-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.  The gallery is located at 5458 Wilshire Blvd. in mid-city.

  • Genie Davis; images by Dale Youngman

Frieze is Hot in LA

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Frieze Art Week, Frieze art parties, Frieze art fair…yes, when LA Frieze’s up, it becomes a hot art party.  At this year’s Barker Hangar spectacular, there were some absolutely stunning works, some solidly commercial fare, some weird and wild pieces, and even a collection of works made from recycled materials – I applaud the effort, but for the cost, is a spray-painted mattress really something one would purchase?

But that’s a quibble. This is the place to discover fresh takes never seen before;  classics, like the marvelous Terry Allen installation, or the gorgeous, delicate, found-materials weaving of El Anatsui, and the grand spectacle of a certified,  high-end art scene.

Nancy Kay Turner has already written an earlier review published here that delves into her favorite pieces and a bit of Frieze history besides, so my approach is simply to show you works divided into the categories that I experienced them:

Wonderful and Why?

The titles of each section alone should serve to be a bit illuminating, and the visuals will likely tell you why images were placed in specific places. Beyond this somewhat silly but honestly fitting breakdown, the enormous fair — which featured more than 95 galleries — displayed a large number of textile and bead works, art made from found objects, fascinating pop art riffs, the aforementioned recycled material pieces, and some stand-out miniatures among its collections.

Wonderful!

From crazy-good mixed media miniatures displayed in two separate gallery booths…the hot violet creation with mini TV screens represented both wonderful and wow…

to the aforementioned wonder of El Anatsui…

to the ethereal lovliness of a work by Tomas Saraceno at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery…

to a lush gold mosaic and even lusher impressionist flowers and a moving take on personal lonliness…

…there was plenty of wonderful to go around.

A room solely devoted to Shepherd Fairey…

terrifying but beautiful apocalyptic images related to climate change by J. Homer French…

lush mixed media paintings, large scale sculptures, including both freestandng – some created from tiny fruit, some digital and wall art – well, this was all a visual feast.

Why?

So, you can paint bronze sculptures to look like Amazon boxes, but, why would you want to? Most people thought it was a joke, and the art was real boxes. If Art Basel had its banana, LA could have it’s Amazon deliveries.

Also, you can create a very cool sculpture made of old cds, but up close, unfortunately, they still look like cds, just in a sinuously lovely shape. And then there were the basketballs. Pretty sure they were real basketballs, possibly taken from my neighbor’s roof.

Also a why for me, given the well-heeled crowd attending the fair, was there an intermittant sprinkle of social commentary that wasn’t quite pointed enough to ruffle any feathers or raise any eyebrows or consciousness?

Then there were the rose quartz sculptures. I love rose quartz. I love sculpture. But, why?

And finally, even though it was a cool walk-through, why was there a very expensive Swiss watchmaker creating their watches in a large corner of the fair? Yes, the craftsmanship was artful. Yes, it was fascinating to watch an engraver at work. But it rang a loud bell of excess …

…that contrasted quite a bit with some very spiritual and lovely gongs in one near by booth, and those aforementioned bits of commentary-related art.

All in all, Frieze is a more than worthy contender in the ever-growing LA art fair sweepstakes. So next year,  put on your best faux fur so you won’t literally freeze in the blasts of air conditioning throughout Barker Hangar, and enjoy the hot art scene. Doubtlessly there will be plenty of wonderful, some werid, and also some of those “why’s.” We will have to wait and see.

  • Genie Davis, photos – Genie Davis