Kaleidoscopes of Color and Light at MOCA Geffen

Posted on by Diversions LA

As dazzling as the midnight sun – a sight doubtlessly familiar to Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson –  is his new exhibition OPEN. The exhibition fills the MOCA Geffen with light and color in an astonishing series of works by a powerful and deeply compelling artist. As a part of the Getty’s PST ART programming, it’s a dynamic one, and my favorite body of work within it. OPEN is the first solo mueseum show by Eliasson in the greater LA area.

Merging light with color, the precision of the geometric form with child-like wonder, Eliasson continues and expands upon his own explorations, here involving parts of the museum’s  own architecture.

The main gallery is home to towering kaleidoscopes beneath observation structures that point both skyward and to the MOCA Geffen building itself.  While some show the effects of light and mirrors, others offer looks into the sky or roof top.

Some offer fascinating, even surreal hexagons and interconnecting, jungle-gym-like lattices that seems as if they came from another world; another is a simple rainbow. Images shift with time of day and weather, creating marvelous illusions of color, shadow, light – and pure joy, in both the artistry and the wonder of the exhibition.

In another gallery space, colorful jeweled rings and painted works represent the color spectrum along the gallery walls.

In the center of the space, triangular shaped kaleidoscopes point not outward but inward, forming shifting geometric color shapes that resemble flowers or buildings. In the same gallery a large geometric prism hangs, a sculpted version of light and shape made manifest.

Elsewhere on the museum’s cavernous ground floor, an interactive room invites viewers to become colorful shadow participants in light and color magic; upstairs a series of mirrors and large half rings create riveting optical illusions as if one is standing inside a ring within a ring.

The artist and the museum encourage viewers to borrow a pillow from the information desk and recline or sit beneath the main gallery’s large structures to contemplate and view the magical shifts of light and form. Yes, it is all smoke and mirrors – no real smoke, just that of the imagination – and it is an incredible illusion, one that will entrance, enthrall, and change how you view the world.  It’s the vision of magicians and angels, and the viewer is the better for having seen it.

As the artist himself posits:

“AM I OPEN/ To facing my numbness?/ To receiving a No?

To explore where I place my attention?/To wonder?/To vulnerability?

To explore where I place my attention? To wonder?/To vulnerability?

Step into this exhibition and invite yourself to find out.

Olafur Eliasson: OPEN is organized by José Luis Blondet, Senior Curator, and Rebecca Lowery, Associate Curator, with Emilia Nicholson-Fajardo, Curatorial Assistant, and Anastasia Kahn, former Curatorial Assistant, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

The exhibition runs through July 6, 2025 – OPEN up your eyes to it this year. MOCA Geffen is located at 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles in Little Tokyo.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

Linda Stelling Explodes with Color

Posted on by Diversions LA

According to artist Linda Stelling, her work is inspired by color, sound, texture, scent — and the “raw, visceral experience of feeling the world deeply through all of my senses.”

Pulsating with color and form, Stelling turns her sensations into what she describes as a visual language, a way to translate her intensity of feeling and explore the inchoate, a world of exploring “the ways we experience and perceive beyond what is immediately visible. It’s about creating a space for viewers to ‘see’ with more than just their eyes, to feel the complexity of existence in a single, suspended moment.”

Indeed, Stelling’s work literally and figuratively flows with meaning, as she creates a dialog with the natural world. She explains that “My work…is a dialogue mostly about the natural world. I am very close to the earth, the people and the animals that live here.”

While sometimes taking on figurative or impressionistic form, Stelling’s work primarily focuses on the abstract, and the freedom abstraction provides for her. She relates that she is “fascinated by curvilinear forms and how I can use them to evoke a response.”

She also utilizes dream work, touching on dream symbolism in order to “develop a choice for initial creation [and] involve color, imagery, emotional attachments, and abstraction as the projected expression of connecting the inner world to the outer world in the form of a painting or sculpture.”

Connecting inner and outer worlds is the heart of Steling’s work, as she converts a personal dialog with color and shape into meaning through her, and the viewer’s, perception.

“Perception is the subjective roulette wheel and can be altered by position, mood, size, and relationship to social climate, as well as how I was raised,” she says, with her upbringing including early exposure to familial artisans and her mother’s profound love for the garden.

According to Stelling, her favorite medium for painted work is oil, whose qualities she asserts is “the most seductive, and gives me the color I crave.” However, she also loves working in clay, and the tactile nature of doing so.

Shaping multi-layered work in whatever medium she selects, Stelling’s goal is to allow viewers to find their own entry point and response to her images. “I am making beauty for all,” she says, noting that “Many of my paintings and installations are about women’s issues, the environment and our responses to the world.”

For Stelling, regardless of subject, her paintings are both conceived and created as journeys, layered materials that she carefully builds up over time with each element ultimately contributing to a finished piece. Simply put, she explains that “I try to make what I like and what gives me joy,” which she then shares with her viewers.

Having shown both internationally and throughout the U.S., Stelling is especially excited about a recent 20-work purchase by UCLA Stein Eye, and by her inclusion in the “Open Show LA” at LAAA’s Gallery 825 through January 10th.  Gallery 825 is located at 825 La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood, and is open by appointment.

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

MAS Attack – A Mutual Appreciation Society Art Pop Up for Our Times

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Community. Caring. Loads of love and sharp, social commentary art.  Conceived and curated by Torrance Art Museum director Max Presneill, this was one special evening at TAM, radiating with a sense of support and jubilant joy even in the face of uncertain (at best) times. LaLena Lewark-Presneill DJ’d; Jorin Bossen and Mark Fisher assisted; docent Katherine Orlin manned the desk.

While art on the wall might suggest “the end” times “…and scene,” this was the start of a really big scene of terrific art – over 300 artworks in all, from sculptures to paintings, photography, mixed media, and everything in between – and phenomenal art loving support with between 700 and 800 attendees. In three short, super fun hours on a very lucky Friday the 13th for all who came, a feast of art and happiness was on the table.

I didn’t get to say hi to all of you – and I missed some works – but here is somewhat of a compilation of terrific art.

If you were there, relive the glorious experience; if you were not, now you can pretend you were.

And share this story! We have no pay wall – so spread the love on and around.

  • Genie Davis; photos, Genie Davis

Odie Leigh Rocks Out at Echoplex

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At a powerhouse concert at the Echoplex in Echo Park a week ago, indie folk artist Odie Leigh edged her way into rockin’  pop with a touch of slightly gritty punky edge.

Through her tight, 15 song playlist, Leigh’s voice was impeccable, her lyrics often darkly romantic and powerfully intense – and even occasionally lighthearted and whimsical, as was the case with “All Star Breakfast,” a gentle Americana love song duet performed with her friend Field Medic.

Playing a mix of songs from her Carrier Pigeon albumn, and older tunes such as her poignant “Crop Circles,” a viral hit on TIkTok,  Leigh might remind the audience of a young Lucinda Williams or Fiona Apple – the former, perhaps at least a bit, because of their shared Louisiana roots – but she is uniquely her own.

Melodic yet powerful, commanding on stage yet comfortably interactive with the audience, Leigh’s songs vibrated with a heady mix of sorrow and fun, determination and wonder.

Highlights of the strong set at Echoplex included heartfelt lyrics, a lively band to support her sounds, and a general upbeat vibe even when musing about loss and vulnerability. While the band supported her on most cuts, she did perform some songs solo, including the delicately wistful “Crop Circles.”

From the contagiously singable chorus in her “Chutes and Ladders”  – “I’ll prеtend love’s Chutes and Ladders/’Til the game stops playing me” to the edgy rocker “My Name on A T-Shirt,” in which she sings “I wanna know how this one еnds…”
Well in Leigh’s case, listeners won’t want this to end at all.

Vibrant, soulful even, and still retaining some of that Americana lyricism, long may Leigh rock – and roll out whatever musical alchemy may come next.

Opening act Clover County was no slouch either, offering rich vocals and sweetly melodic sounds with a strong mix of indie folk and country sounds with themes of heartbreak and modern love.

The Georgia native has a smooth yet intimate style that warmed the audience in the best way – winning those unfamiliar with her hopeful melodies and raw breakup stories to ask for one more song before she left the stage.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Jack Burke, Genie Davis