Miriam Wosk – Touch of the Hand at LAM Gallery

In LA? Run, don’t walk to LAM Gallery for the stunning exhibit of the estate of the late Miriam Wosk. The pieces are for the most part writ large, floral, a kaleidoscope that spins the world into a rich, forested fantasia. In 2007, the artist described her work as a discovery of “a certain order in the chaos of life.” She termed her work both spiritual and surreal., calling her paintings “symbolically autobiographical…an investigation into the patterns of human experience and perception.” Searching for a balance between spontaneity and design, the artist touches on “the sacred and the mundane, life and death.” Poignantly, as the artist is no longer with us, her work is bursting with life, an eternal experience that transcends her own death. In many of her pieces, the viewer senses a rift between this world and the next, this planet and another.

Wosk’s “Animus” is branches, horn, and painted metallic foils on a mannequin. What is the creature, frozen here, waiting to writhe into life?

“The Mystic Flower of the Soul” is acrylic and mixed media on panel. Jewels, a star-fish – a sensual feast for the eyes.

“The Grotto” is mixed media, acrylic, and collaged paper on canvas. Starfish, cactus spines, coral, glitter, beads are all a part of this piece, which looks like night beneath the sea, or a surreal sky the artist surfed.

Perhaps it’s the artist’s use of three dimensional materials, but the paintings transport the viewer to a place of magic, of bliss.

“It Flows Everywhere Out of Itself” – with radiance. Paper collage with crystals embedded, the other worldly presence takes the viewer into the flowered world from which it flowed. Below,  “What in the World” — paper, crystals, threads, mixed media on black gessoed rice paper. An imploded planet, the inside of a flower, the dissection of the universe.

Watercolors and glitter on paper – individually a Rorschach test for the senses, collectively, creatures from a different world, astrology symbols fused with sea life.

This piece below  is a tapestry, woven with metallic threads and Swarovski crystals. It could’ve been created in a 12th century castle, or in a future not yet realized. “Big Red Tapestry” is just that. Large and aflame.

Wosk takes on the past, an unknown future, a present bright with secret spaces and wondrous places. This her elegy and her tribute. A collection of spirits on canvas, panel, tapestry, and paper.

LAM Gallery is located at 913 N. Highland in LA on the edge of Hollywood. Or perhaps, in this case, on the edge of this universe and another.

• Genie Davis; Photos by Jack Burke