Sigma Shines at Roswell Space

Posted on by Diversions LA

Nancy Kay Turner and Michael Falzone are expertly paired in two solo shows now at Roswell Space through April 14th.  Sigma features work that touches on memory and the mysterious in an exhibit that utilizes found objects and memorabilia as well as fascinating artistic form.

Turner fully inhabits a world that touches on the illusions of memory – and how time changes all. There’s a current of magical realism in her work as well. Here working primarily earth tones, the artist offers framed mixed media works that include the abandoned antique photographs of strangers with a variety of other media, including gold leaf, collage materials, feathers, fabric, bits of wallpaper, even a pair of antique eyeglasses and a sheet of music.

One image features Teddy Roosevelt, and a message of despair scrawled in years long past.

Viewers are drawn to the mystery and the recognizable as well as the strange; in her work we are all one generation – or ten – away from being reappropriated as the grand ghosts of imagination.

A massive series of Turner’s scrolls descends from one wall as the viewer enters the gallery. Created from ink and coffee dyed rice paper on embossed wallpaper with mixed media, the 89″ by 63″ triptych “Memory Palace Totemic Scroll” descends from a thin bamboo rod and graces us with a sense of quiet remembrance that is both solemn and sweet. It is a glimpse through the curtains of time and a look at the world beyond it.

Falzone’s metal and wood sculptures are primarily long and thin, evocative sentinels standing at the portal, as it were. “Cat Man & Bird” embodies all three forms of being, with wit and understanding. He, too, touches on magical realism and remembrance.

“Woman in Red,” with eyebrows raised on a lustrous metal face, offers a quizzical guidance.

“Cat Man and Snake” presents a vivid reptile and elements reminiscent of Native American figures that are both welcoming and tributory.

Whether freestanding floor pieces or geared to a tabletop pedestal, each piece is a uniquely engrossing sculpture that compel with their narrative quality. Falzone also offers several wood on panel wall works, as well.

Both Falzone and Turner draw the eye and engage the spirit, evoking other places than this, realms both fantastical and just out of reach, possessing a fierce attraction that can only be called the magic of original art and its complex juncture with the storytelling of dreams.

Curated by gallerist Jonna Lee, Sigma will host a closing on April 14 from 2-4 p.m. and is open any time by appointment.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

Charles Derenne Inhabits Uncharted Territory

Posted on by Diversions LA

Green and lush, fecund and fabulous, artist Charles Derenne claims territory that is dream-like and wistful in a magical space. Using landscape paintings and photographic collage, as well as a brilliant conception of a leafy vending machine selling Poloroid images of fictional land, Derenne invites viewers into unclaimed spaces of both self and environmental exploration.

In his just-closed exhibition at Wonzimer Gallery, Uncharted, Derenne offers an immersive exhibition about humanity’s impact on wilderness landscapes, emotional and spiritual landscapes, and the wonder of the earth itself.

Whether traditional paintings or encompassing draped canvas as in his “Desert de Coronel,” a backdrop with a social-media-perfect chair placed in front of it, the artist invites viewers to inhabit his radiant world.

He shapes that world from a variety of real-life and imagined spaces, from Pasadena’s Colorado Bridge to Echo Park, but perhaps the centerpiece of this exhibition is his large scale “From the courtyard,” in which a pyramid of white takes central focus, lined with palms, an entirely uninhabited yet human-made space.  In the prominent right foreground, there is one creature astir – a fly.

Representing the solitude of the artist’s studio as well as the welcoming branches of a tangled forest, the theme most uncharted here is that of sanctuary, a place still being searched for, in an urban park or mysterious jungle. Along with the rich greenery on land, Derenne offers a series of wistful cloudscapes, in pale blues and white.  There is also a billboard of sorts, advertising “Land & Air for Sale – Cash Only.” One can sense such a time coming.

Parisian-born, the Los Angeles-based Derenne’s first LA solo show is impressionistic and dreamy, with a green and blue palette that soothes and surrounds the viewer. There are two notable exceptions in the exhibition: one is the diorama of “Picnic at Hermit Falls,” a miniature free-standing landscape that along the hilly green space it shapes, also includes the detritus of a tossed beer can. The pristine can never remain quite perfect once humankind is involved.

The other exception is a series of silver gelatin print photographs within large segments of torn paper, through the holes of which the darkness of humanity’s effect on natural life is revealed, such as graffiti carved into the trunks of trees.

Infused with a sense of longing and poetry, Derenne’s work delves deep into the wonders of nature, the pending loss of our ability to connect with same, and the sense of isolation and loneliness that disconnection shapes in our lives. Entering the exhibition and encountering Derenne’s delicious weaving of place and personhood, his sensitive yet humorous view of nature vs. human nature, is an experience to be savored, perhaps pressed in the book of memory in the same way in which we might save a fragile leaf or flower between pages long unread.

We had the pleasure of taking in the artist’s world after dark, with a candlelit dinner at the gallery. It’s exciting to see that along with the environment the artist created, Wonzimer is continuing to create its own world for artists and viewers to contemplate as well.

Missed Derenne’s work in person? Check out the 3D virtual exhibition here. 

Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and as provided by the gallery

Froggy Becomes Is Fabulous, Edgy Fun

Posted on by Diversions LA

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

Posted on by Diversions LA

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