Forest Bathing Takes Root at Loft at Liz’s

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Memory Tree by Catherine Ruane, above

Through June 17th, take a walk in a forest of art with Forest Bathing, now at Loft at Liz’s. Curated by Betty Brown, the exhibition is a celebration of nature. Paying homage to the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, the exhibition takes the idea of mindful discovery and peace through nature and transforms it into an experience in the gallery through paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photography, as well as mixed media installations. 17 artists create their own depictions of nature, and it is worthy of a long, deep forest-bath.

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Above, artist Catherine Ruane.

Catherine Ruane’s brilliantly realistic graphite drawing, “Memory Tree,” draws viewers within its massive, comforting branches.

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Lyrical and wondrous, the work feels tactile, as if the branches were embracing the viewer.

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Bibi Davidson, in contrast, gives us brightly colored trees in a surreal world that leads viewers into a dream-like state. Viewing her work is a fabulous adventure.

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Linda Vallejo’s graceful paintings of the oak trees around Topanga Canyon exude peace.

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Hung Viet Nguyen’s richly textured tributes to the trees of the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest outside Big Pine, Calif., seem magical and beyond this world.

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His thick paint and vibrant palette add to the sensation of having entered a new realm.

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Speaking of a different world, Marthe Aponte takes over the Projects Room, with “Sacred Trees,” using drawing, embroidery, and paint and picote, a traditional, painstaking, and delicate form of French paper art.

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To enter the room is to step into a different dimension, a hushed and holy and strange place that glows. In the back of the room, a Joshua Tree of slightly different construction stands, as if watching over the viewers who enter the room, a guardian of a reverent place.

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Another mixed media work comes from Dave Lovejoy and Susan Feldman, who have created a contemporary grotto in one of the gallery’s stairwells, one made of wood and thread, shaping trees that are instantly recognizable as such, and yet deconstructing the shape of limbs and trunks. The use of lighting, the evocative green glow of this dimensional installation, make the work seem like a portal. It beckons, fecund.

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Also contemporary: Chenhung Chen’s 3-D tree constructed of electrical cords and wires: using this detritus of technology, she’s created a poetic and lovely reduction of the essence of “treeness.”

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Another true stunner is Samuelle Richardson’s white wood tree, occupied by cacophonus crows. You can almost hear them.

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Her fabric sculpture is evocative and haunting, but at the same time, she’s managed to convey a sense of whimsy in the work, as if one had entered a fairy tale.

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Above, glittering trees from Hermine Harman.

There are many other wonderful works taking root in the gallery forest as well. Exhibition artists include in all: Marthe Aponte, Chenhung Chen, Bibi Davidson, Barbara Edelstein, Susan Feldman & Dave Lovejoy, Renee Fox, Maria Greenshields-Ziman, Hermine Harman (whose glittering trees explode with color above), Joanne Julian, Sant Khalsa, Alberto Mesirca, Hung Viet Nguyen, Samuelle Richardson, Catherine Ruane, Jill Sykes and Linda Vallejo.

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Above, beautiful, elegatic photographic work from Sant Khlasa.

If the words dream, other worldly, mysterious, and haunting have come up in this review – and they have – it is because entering the gallery, one must give up a sense of the “real world:” the noise of the street, the crowds on the stairs at the opening, and instead embrace the sensory experience of stepping into a forest of art, one that is indeed all of those things.

From the most realistic to the most fantastical renderings, Brown has shaped a forest that embraces and explores natural beauty and our perception of it, soaking us in the shadows, serenity, and life force that is inherent in these artistic woods.  Emerge from this forest refreshed, yes, but also expanded: let these images of nature and wonder slip into your soul, and feel the better for it.

You’ll need to hurry in – but once you’re there, bask. Loft at Liz’s is located at 453 S. La Brea in mid-city. The exhibition closes June 17th.

59973425_10217147442145357_5553345701015977984_nAbove, curator Brown introduces the artwork and artists to the opening night crowd.

 

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, Susan Feldman installation photo courtesy Cheryl Henderson.

 

 

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