Betye Saar Offers Haunting And Evocative Immersive Installation at the Huntington

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Paddle your own canoe.

Never, though the winds may rave,

Falter or look back:

But upon the darkest wave

Leave a shining track.

Sarah Bolton

Drifting Towards Twilight, Betye Saar’s large-scale immersive installation, commissioned by the Huntington Art Museum and Library, is a deeply moving sculptural piece, comprised of evocative found materials collected over years along with dried cuttings from the gardens. Set in the middle of a blue-gray hued room, the large canoe filled with assembled travelers is an evocative piece rich in metaphor. With a nod towards global mythic narratives, the canoe, which the artist altered to make it look more vintage, rests on a bed of dried organic materials sourced from the myriad gardens, seemingly in a liminal state between heaven and earth. The intense neon blue light visible underneath the canoe suggests a supernatural voyage into the looming unknown.

In the middle of the canoe, situated on small children’s chairs, are three almost identical bird cages (each slightly larger or smaller than the preceding one) with deer antlers sitting inside. In the front and rear of the canoe are guardian human-like figures which are constructed of altered staircase balustrades. One cannot help but see this as a family portrait of the artist with her husband and three children. Though the white bone antlers can reference death, here they are a symbol of regeneration – as they fall off naturally and grow back even larger. The skeleton-like cages become a vessel for containing the soul while paradoxically letting light and air in.

While Saar has used cages in the past to allude to the slave trade, in this piece the intent seems different. The canoe serves as a metaphor for transitioning from one place to another, from the physical plane to the spiritual plane. The dazzling neon blue light mysteriously illuminates the ground under this cosmic canoe, amplifying the imminence of a supernatural excursion. The subtle and exquisite lighting design shifts the mood ever so slightly, suggesting the sun setting and rising through daylight to nightfall. The phases of the moon painted on the wall speak to Saar’s longstanding interest in mysticism and the occult.

The accompanying short film directed by Kyle Provencio Reingold, program director of Ghetto Film School LA, is a gem. It documents Saar’s history and childhood connections to the Huntington while documenting her process building the installation. This contemplative piece connects to the burial traditions of the Vikings and South Asians whose rituals include majestic funeral pyres floating out to sea. The boat is a widespread and potent symbol of transitioning from one world to the next in mythology. Betye Saar, at 97, is la national treasure, upbeat and masterful as she continues to delight, educate, and surprise as she and we all are drifting inexorably towards the twilight, enjoying the pleasures of creativity, family and kin along the way.

  • Nancy Kay Turner; photos by Joshua White provided by the Huntington Art Museum and Library

 

 

 

Must See Art in DTLA – Luis De Jesus, Vielmetter, Nicodim, Artbug, and at the Bendix

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There is a plethora of excellent art in downtown Los Angeles right now. It might, if you feel daring, even be possible to walk between them. Whether you go by foot, car, or public transport, here are some excellent shows that you simply should not miss.

At Luis De Jesus, two stunning solo shows use unique materials to create riveting, utterly original art. Hector Dionicio Mendoza Buscando Futuro / Searching for a Future, marks the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, and it’s a splendid one. From wall art to giant sculptural forms, Mendoza shapes his figures from unusual materials, some of which he describes as “ethnic breads, ” as well as “wood, feathers, bark, and cardboard.” Monumental in size in some cases, and in meaning in every piece, Mendoza’s work is informed by his own personal experiences and the border politics of the U.S. and Mexico. His visualization of immigrant experience is richly moving, a series of browns and beiges and golds with the occasional splash of color from peacock feathers and recycled clothing. This is literally and figuratively colossal work.

Griselda Rosas‘ Donde pasó antes (Where it happened before) is equally passionate and glorious. Drawing from both personal memories and fairy tales, Rosas’ work is as vividly colorful as Mendoza’s is steeped in the brown of desert dust and southwestern landscapes.

Rosas creates mixed media collages from fabrics, cyanotypes, acrylic, watercolor, natural pigments and lush embroidery on linen and ostrich skin. Sculptural works represent ornamental slingshots. Her magical collages tell trenchant tales about colonization and resistance, while using skilled textile manipulation and fanciful figures. She blends mythic images and children’s stories, using a brilliant palette that vibrates with both color and meaning. Remarkable work.

Both solo exhibitions run through February 17th. Luis De Jesus is located at 1110 Matteo Street in the arts district.

Not far away, there’s a new kid in town, a small but well-curated art collective has shaped exhibition space for MAARLA members at Artbug. The opening show, A Mirror to the Sprawl features the brilliantly colored acrylic painting of Hagop Najarian; a riveting abstract utilizing found objects from Stephanie Sherwood; and a terrific series of diminutive vinyl cutout and acrylic flora from Surge Witron. Electronic timers animate a visually cool and thematically fascinating work from Carly Chubak providing apt social commentary on the cost paid for labor. Sean Cully offers a lovely, interactive wood rain stick sculpture, while josh vasquez exhibits a still life of a classic alcoholic beverage presented behind a thick wall of plexiglass, much as it would be on a shop shelf. Emily Babette Gross, Katie Shanks, and H. Leslie Foster II also offer beautifully wrought work.

The exhibition runs through the February 4 at Artbug, which is located at 441 Hunter Street, Unit B.

A short distance away, Vielmetter’s multiple galleries offer two separate solo exhibitions and one vividly delightful group show. London-based artist Celia Paul’s Life Painting in Gallery 1 offers a primarily pastel palette and soft focus on images that include the British Museum, a white rose, the Devon shore, and her “Standing Self Portrait.” Opalescent shadows and a gentle rhythm of brush strokes suffuse the quietly lustrous exhibition.

In the Greenhouse annex, a lively, vividly colorful group exhibition from artists Lavaughan Jenkins, Mario Joyce, Raffi Kalenderian, and Kiriakos Tompolidis showcases works of oil over foam and acrylic on wood panel from Jenkins that vibrate with color and texture; stained-glass-like collage and mixed media works from Joyce; cool and dream-like patterns in truly lovely work from Tompolidis created in acrylic, oil and photo transfer; and Kalenderian’s vivid and visceral images of everything from a ruby red cocktail to a burnished orange backdrop to a Glendale billiards hall. Both terrific shows are up until March 9th.

Closing soon, January 27th in Vielmetter Gallery 2, Todd Gray offers splendid 3D photo collages created from acrylic, oil and photo transfer in a tour de force solo exhibition Rome Work. Images convey thoughtful and startling takes on religion, colonialism, and outdated cultural tropes in a completely unique multiplicity of images.

Upstairs at Nicodim’s annex, a lustrous display of rich acrylic still-lifes glow with inner light from Massachusetts-based artist Nicole Duennebier, in her solo exhibition The Only Way Out is Through. suffused with radiance but dark, these dream-like yet intricately realistic images cast mysterious spells.

Down the hall at another Nicodim outpost, No Shortcuts to Aztlan, Christian Ruiz Berman’s multi-cultural kaleidoscopic images overlap with figurative, surreal, geometric, and abstract elements whose patterns are as supple and evocative as its layered subjects. Both shows are on exhibit through February 17th. Nicodim and Vielmetter are located at 1700 Santa Fe Ave.

A few blocks away at the Bendix building, Tiger Strikes Asteroid presents the vibrant palette of Sara Vanderbeek. The Austin native uses vivid fabric dyes to create images reminiscent of Gaugin figures on linen. Works are hung from the ceiling – including cut outs of legs and objects of clothing – as well as on the walls for an immersive exhibition of a passionate palette. From pregnancy to social violence, while some subjects may be dark, others are more whimsical, and all are celebrations of the glories, indignities, traumas, and triumphs of life itself. Above all else, the joyousness of creation is hanging on the figurative line in these textile works. This is a wow. On display through February 4th.

Adjacent gallery space Monte Vista displays the layered, glossy works of Olivia Booth, works so deep that the viewer feels as if diving into the glowing abstract images is a real possibility. Using a combination of diverse materials that include flashglass and borosillicate, plastic, melted mirror, oil and rubber, the images are both gorgeous and gritty, shining and disturbing. The works will also be on display through February 4th.

At 515, the group exhibition On Painting covers a wide range of creativity in a series of abstract works that include Carlos Beltran Arechiga’s futuristic standout, as well as stellar works by Surge Witrön, Crystal Michaelson, Pamela Taguinot, Peter Nagy and Sasha Mariyem. Sleek, supple, and all about the brush stroke, this show closes February 3rd.

Also in the Bendix, Durden and Ray offers a fascinating collaboration between the Los Angeles based collective and a collective in Arctic Norway, Small Projects. Titled Beyond Horizons, the exhibition was curated by Jet pascua, and featured artists Marsil Andjelov Al-Mahamid, Jojo Austria, Arezoo Bharthania, Tanya Busse, Joe Davidson, Dani Dodge, Eva Faché, Stein Henningsen, Ged Merino, Ina Otzko, Jet Pascua, and Stephanie Sherwood.

The show focuses on landscape – both geographic and political, with note made of climate change and border conflicts. Conceptually strong, exhibition images are primarily abstract, and visually absorbing. Images of golden Joshua trees from Dodge and wonderful geographic landscapes created from the improbable medium of Scotch tape from Davidson join a vertically hung urban forest of images from Barthania among other stellar works by the LA team, while images from their Nordic counterparts include beautiful textile works and sculptures. The exhibition is on exhibit until February 4th.

The Bendix Building is located at 1206 Maple Avenue in DTLA. Go downtown!

Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

 

 

Patricia Fortlage Makes Artistic Lemonade

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Photographic artist Patricia Fortlage brings an ethereal beauty to her new exhibition, Lemonade, My Chronic Illness Story. The exhibition is at Shoebox Projects online gallery through February 25th. Take a long, deep, visual drink.

Fortlage’s inspiration for the series came from shared and nearly identical stories expressed by other women suffering from chronic illnesses and disabilities that were similar to her own. “While I cannot possibly represent an entire population because of the inherent variability in being human, I can definitely share my own experience and hope that people can relate to it. Our culture has very strong ideas on how I should look having a disability, how I should behave, what I should do about my health… if I should exist at all,” she explains.

The exhibition chips away at the stereotypes surrounding disabilities. “There is an overwhelming amount of discrimination, medical gaslighting, misogyny, and dismissal,” she says, along with the assumption that those with disabilities are somehow “faking ill health to gain some sort of perceived systemic benefit.” The reality, she notes, is the complete opposite. “The truth is, I AM faking it.  I am faking WELLNESS. To do anything less leaves me vulnerable, dismissed, discarded.”

Her new series is designed to show “there is still beauty here, and power, and fight. That I have much yet to offer. Yes, there are challenges and there are truly gruesome moments… and some of that is shared as well… but I mostly aim to shine a spotlight on the resilience and fighting spirit and beauty that still lives within me.”

Viewers will see images and read writings from Fortlage that are both poignant and genuinely inspiring. There is a stunning image of the artist in a medical gown viewed from the behind, a trail of pearl necklaces running like tears down her exposed back. The image is accompanied by writing about the discovery of Tarlov Cysts that were only addressed by an out-of-town specialist after local doctors and surgeons dismissed her.

In her image “The Breath,” butterflies land on Fortlage’s face, caressing and sustaining her, as she receives oxygen through a nasal cannula.

“On the Menu” is a gorgeous still life reminiscent of 17th century Dutch Golden Age paintings. Along with the flowers and fruit in Fortlage’s image, there are medicines and medical devices. “File 13 or Circular Trashcan” refers to the medical system’s discard of patients whose chronic conditions they fail to understand. Once such trash can is the trivialized Chronic Fatigue System. The image here is a truly haunting one, a black and white photo discarded in a clear plastic cup.

“Manifesting” presents the viewer with a candlelit altar devoted to a variety of medications and treatments, as well as a pretty mask the artist wears figuratively to conceal her condition from those who tire hearing of it. In another image, a levitating double of the artist floats above herself as she lies on the ground, as she questions whether she is still “in there,” despite being unable to pursue her full-time job or athletic activities.

There are images of an overly familiar and thus no-longer frightening MRI tunnel; a piece titled “Weapons of Battle,” in which walking aids are displayed like precious samurai swords; and a lovely image of a perfect floral skirt worn by Fortlage above leg braces. Viewers also see the contents of her purse; the sterile emptiness of a doctor’s waiting room; and in “Elixers,” beautiful but frightening cocktails are presented in voluptuous focus on a silver tray, while medicines are revealed in soft focus behind them.

Also exhibited are a lush noir image of cigarette smoke rising to cause an immune compromised “flare,” while words of fragile independence describe the meaning of another image that reveals a disabled parking sign outside and parking tag inside a vehicle. The exhibition concludes with a somberly lovely and eerie image, “Troubling Thoughts,” which depicts the artist in a bathtub as seen from above, isolated, and alone.

This collection of images is as devastating as it is beautiful, and one that the artist describes as an outgrowth of prior work and who she is as an artist. “I am a documentary and fine art photographer by trade, but I would also describe myself as a subtle activist. I am consistently creating work in hopes to educate and/or inspire positive change… especially for women and girls. This work certainly builds upon that foundation.”

As should be obvious from viewing the exhibition, Fortlage is creating truly lovely and lovingly revealed images that also expose the need to understand “the discrimination, medical gaslighting, misogyny, and dismissal that those of us with chronic illness and disabilities face.” She calls the show a small step toward “exposing that behavior, in lifting the veil, and calling it out.” She hopes that viewers will join in her effort to do just that and lead the way forward with “love and compassion.”

Certainly this fine visual exhibition and its accompanying, poetic, deeply felt prose will encourage just that. Enter the exhibition online and prepare to be moved; and do tune in to the artist talk, Wednesday the 17th at 6 p.m. The link for the Zoom talk is posted here.

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

Begin 2024 with Epic Art Exhibitions from 2023

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Hurry this weekend to see the closing of the lush landscapes and dream-like, pristine views created by master artist Hung Viet Nguyen at Lois Lambert Gallery in Bergamot Station.

Likely the last iteration of Nguyen’s Sacred Landscape Series V — the artist plans new projects for the year ahead – Pilgrimage is lush, mysterious, magical, and of course, spiritual. Explore large scale works like “Sacred Landscape V #57,” in which a volcano is added to the lagoon-scape; or a vertical take on a similar scene replete with volcanoes, crater and waterfall, in “Sacred Landscape V #36.” Relatively new for Nguyen is his inclusion of small human figures in the vast and embracing landscapes. Some swim, some take selfies. There are flowers, arches, jewel-like stones.

Presenting portals, gateways, stars, and incandescent skies,  this series includes elements of gold leaf among the rich, rivetingly textured oil-on-canvas works. A smaller series within this body of work contains six perfect 12 x 12 more diminuitive landscapes, as well as eleven images sized 14 x 11.  These stunning smaller treasures would make a stellar start to New Year’s collecting resolutions.

But take note – the exhibition is only up through the 6th of January, so plan your weekend accordingly.

Above, Carlos Beltran Arechiga, curtor with artist Curtis Stage

You have more time to head south to the Irvine Arts Center, where the vibrant palette and complex sculptures, paintings, and assemblages of Revision are up through February 3rd.

Well worth the drive are the fascinating limestone and granite dominant scultpures from Naim Kurani…

dense, excitingly motion-packed oil on canvas and oil with wax and gold leaf on canvas works from the vivid brush of Hagop Najarian…

and multi-media abstract works than sing with bold excitement from Max Prexneill.

Also on display are a series of archival print’s documenting a live-art installation created by Stephanie Sherwood on site at the exhibition’s November 8th opening, the created installation is also on display…

you’ll also find mixed media assemblages from John Sollom that are deeply dimensional and serve as fascinating treasure hunts for the eye…

Curtis Stage creates illusionary world through his archival giclee prints on artist paper,  vibrating with black and white patterns,  and Surge Witron creates abstract acrylic and spray paint works that are equally powered by movement and light.

On display through collabortion with art collective Durden and Ray with curatorial support from Carlos Beltran Arechiga, this is a powerful exhibition featuring hybrid forms and exploratory juxtapositions. Above all, this varied exhibition sings with color, movement, and compelling shapes.

Above, artists Carolyn Mason and Dani Dodge

In an adjoining gallery, Into the Garden is a two-person exhibition that creates the titular Edenic space by pairing delicate, ephermeral fabric works by Dani Dodge with the mysterious and alien expandable foam sculptures of Carolyn Mason.

Viewers are invited to wander between the hanging, sheer fabric works from Dodge, alive with desert creatures, other flora and fauna, and shining from lustrous sewn-on jewels and beading. Viewers will feel as if they are walking through a soft, floating Mojave landscape that shifts, dreamlike, with evey step.

Mason’s fascinating mixed media sculptures are otherwordly and wondrous, creating a terrific contrast of form and shape that when combined transports the viewer beyond the gallery walls. This exhibition is also curated with Durden and Ray and Carlos Beltran Arechiga.

Up ’til February 3rd, there will be an artist talk the last weekend in January – again, don’t miss. 

Lastly – also through February 3rd, Icelandic artist Jónsi presents sound, light, and if you’re lucky, even a taste of Icelandic moonshine, in an entirely unique exhibition at Tanya Bonkadar Gallery in mid-city.

The artist and musician has created a sound-centric immersive environment, as well as color shifting, hypnotic LED light screens, sensorial-heightening herbacious scents of freshly cut grass and flowers, and the wave vibrations of a sculpture comprised of 100 speakers. It’s an entirely unique sculptural experience.

What are you waiting for? Go out and get arting before January slips away in post-holiday fog!

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis