Collectivity Shines at Durden and Ray

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Closing this weekend, Collectivity at Durden and Ray gives viewers a blueprint for the modern world. A joint-exhibition between two art collectives – Hyperlink in Colorado Springs, and Durden and Ray here in Los Angeles – hence the title – the show was collaboratively curated by UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art Director Daisy McGowan and Durden and Ray artists Lana Duong and David Spanbock.  Representing the works of 12 artists from each collective, the show offered a fresh look at image making, and what these images mean to us.

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Larua Shill’s dynamic – and ironically Instagram-ready – mixed media sculptural work, Separation Perfected, features selfie sticks, plaster, and laser cut mirrors. Her held-aloft cluster of handsare lifting mirrored cell phones to take the ultimate selfie..  Reflective of today’s cultural mores and on what makes art truly art,  the work is compelling visually and emotionally. What do we see in these mirrors but ourselves? And what do we reflect? Creation? A memory? A reverential tribute to ourselves as the ultimate significant other?

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David Leapman’s series of gold ink and watercolor works are also visually dazling;  the prolific artist also offers large scale works such as Vampire Blues, using cristalina and acrylic on canvas. Leapman’s dayglow Rambler’s Gristle vibrated with color, a mysterious voicing of change and possibility in a world that seems overwhelming at times.

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Leapman above, Jackel below.

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Ben Jackel’s stoneware, ebony and beeswax sculptural works Fortress Wesel and Fortress Sedan evoked a sense of flight and a wish for escape. As with many of the works here, a sense of mystery, and of a future inexorably tied to the past seemed to whisper from these works.

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Sijia Chen’s lush, lavender-dominant Veil resemebled an abstract sunrise, shadows aslant, or a look into a wordless, wondrous afterlife.  The large scale work has an ethereal glow.

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Jorin Bossen’s oil, acrlic, and pastel works – virtually headless, rust-colored images of gunslingers from the old west – are time travellers, icons caught in a transition between now and the past.  Representative of the masculine ideal, no faces to distract us, these works have a rooted irony,  as well as being potent memorials to a part of the American mythos.

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Powerful, witty, and passionate,  Collectivity offers a brilliant commentary on the components of our modern life, and on our beliefs, hopes, and dreams. The exhibition offers evocations of the past and lush portals into an unknown future.  The show was brilliantly laid out,  taking us into tomorrow and yesterday, moving skillfully between the hyper-awareness of our modern existence and the restive spirit of the great unknown we all face. Above all, this is a show that invites viewers and artists alike to go dancing forever in the art of the now.

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Durden and Ray is now located in the Bendix Building in the heart of the Fashion District. Come for the art and stay for the sunset, too.

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  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

 

 

California Drawin’: Frederika Roeder Paints a Landscape

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Frederika Roeder has a California state of mind. She says her art is inspired by the state and its “diverse landscape that ricochets from barren deserts to peaks of 11,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas, to epic surf along the Pacific Coast with swaths of blue skies holding it together.”
As a self-described “4th generation Californian,” Roeder grew up with the ocean, desert, and mountains defining her early years.
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“My grandfather used to take me on weekend excursions to the high desert of Lucerne Valley. He like to explore the old mines and take the dirt roads into the unknown distance.  It was he who taught me to love the rocks and sand, and yuccas and the Saguaro trees…. I learned to watch the endless horizons of the desert.”
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Her family’s love for California was intergenerational – Roeder says her father was one of the first surfers in southern Orange County,  an area which still resonates with her, particularly the area around Dana Point. “For me it embodies all that is iconic about Southern California. There is also a narrative of my life buried in the landscapes.  I think of our landscape as essentially high contrast, not a blend, so it can be exhilarating to go from one area to another and learn to love them all.”
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Roeder has transferred that love of landscape into her work. “I would like viewers to take away from my art a sense of awe, beauty, and inspiration that hopefully and possibly transfers back to the respective beauty of place that they have experienced personally. And if not that, of California,” she relates. “I want viewers in a way to be redirected both to their own lives in respect to the beauty of landscape,  the fragility of our own coasts, deserts, and mountains in the face of the inevitable onslaught of civilization and necessary development. These places deserve to be respected, cherished, and held in awe.”
With that in mind, Roeder believes that “This is the beginning phase of resisting the bulldozers that tear the state apart, segmenting it into freeways so those endless horizons become less and less.  Perhaps it leads to environmental activism.”
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Roeder hopes that viewers of her work “take away a re-appreciation for the blues of the Pacific, the nearly synthetic pinks of sunset, and the glistening whites of Sierra snow, and San Clemente sprays of white from the waves. In some of my work, I have been inspired by a long walk at the beach with the green of kelp interspersed with the black of mussel shells.”
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Roeder has worked as an artist all her life, and is today “continuing to explore my San Clemente Series,” lush paintings that evoke sea, sky, and sand (above).
  
She says her color palette is “anything derived from the ocean –  from kelp, to waves, to foam, to tar, to coves, to huge swells, the night sky, the sand, the sounds, and the smells, as well as the unsurpassable beauty of Tahiti, Hawaii, California beaches, the great Sonoran deserts as far south as Borrego and north to Lancaster and northeast to Bishop – and the mountains that line all of this.”
It is a palette that vibrates with light, life, and nature; her abstract works seem to send energy right off the canvas. Her use of light, space, and color evoke an artistic environment that is entirely original and yet one which seems innately familiar – a kind of homecoming, perhaps, for California.
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To say natural landscape is the quintessential driver of Roeder’s work is not hyperbole. She’s in love with the “gently morphing” sunset colors; and sees “the browns and grays of the desert sand and LA as a neutral that makes the colors even more vivid.  The pines of the Sierras and the gray green of the oaks are not absent from my palette, often referencing them with a line like a pinstripe on a Mustang Convertible,” she explains.
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Darkness, too, gets its due. “Even the dense fog, black nights, and the red tides have influenced my color sense.”
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She adds that “Once I realized that nature can be as neon as it gets, it seemed to justify my use of neon, interference, luminesence, and all things shimmering.”
Her colors are textured and rich, with a depth that seems to come naturally to her in her use of layers, and overlapping colors. Roeder says this visceral quality has not always been the case with her work, which has grown more textural in recent years.
“Combining mixed media collage, acrylic, and ink, and acrylic pens with glazes and full body acrylic with even mediums that make it even thicker, has become interesting and vital to me,” she relates.
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For Roeder, her technique and mediums all come back to the landscape itself. “I like to think again to nature where everything is mixed: smooth against rough, thick against thin.”
As an artist, as well as a conduit for the natural beauty that she personally adores, she says she also allows the canvas  — or ground — to be part of the painting.  “It is both an historical reference to canvas as one of the main grounds for art-making, as well as a reference to the sound and look of real canvas sails, and a non-digital reference point.  I also just like the look, feel, neutrality, and perfect off-whiteness of canvas.  It adds a natural consistency and texture to the paintings I like.”
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Roeder’s work is as rich, varied, and jeweled as the landscapes she so admires – and transmits to viewers through the many-faceted dimensions of her art.
– Genie Davis; photos: Frederika Roeder

Tape Artist Chiho Harazaki in 3-Day Pop-Up

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Coming to Venice August 17-19,  SOVO// Magazine offers viewers a chance to witness – and participate in – the creation of a ceiling-to-floor wall mural from LA-based contemporary tape-artist Chiho Harazaki.

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What is a tape artist? Like a maker of mosaics, Harazaki, who was born and raised in Japan, shapes delicate work from fragments of electrical tape. Wielding scissors and precision knives, she creates fascinating, dynamic works that combine elements of cultural, historical, architectural, and lifestyle elements into elaborate depictions of scenes set in both Japan and LA.

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The artist has worked in this medium since 2014, and its uniqueness enhances her cool, clean, and visceral style. She says that her life in Japan and now in the U.S. both inform her subjects and her art. Indeed, the meticulous nature of the work, and the lyrical aspects of her composition seem to have arisen from her heritage; while the boldness of meaning and many of her physical settings are pure Los Angeles.

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Harazaki’s work offers a fresh take on iconic LA locations such as Union Station and Sunset Junction, as well as a poignant depiction of children at play in her “String Game,”  salary men dining in Japan, and in a piece commissioned by SOVO, “Bookends,” she depicts busts of former President Obama and Trump at either end of a row of books, with titles between them depicting each man’s philosophy of life.

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“The refuse of tape: tiny, useless, leftover scraps; can become perfect components of an artwork. I found the beauty of imperfection in tape art,” Harazaki says.

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Her hand-cut shapes and lines resemble traditional Japanese arts such as woodcut and paper cutting, but are themselves  fascinating and entirely unique mixed-media works.

The 3-day pop-up art installation and music event commemorates the magazines second half-issue, ​[ Issue 2.5 ] and is planned to help attendees interact, break routine, and manifest understanding through art.

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Harazaki, who will be present throughout the exhibition dates, says “Let’s focus on growing love. Play together. Know each other.”

She will be working live on a large-scale artwork, offering a rare chance to see her unique, process in action. And, in addition to viewing Harazaki’s original works, a limited edition T-shirt, designed by the artist and produced by SOVO//, will be available for sale. When worn in front of each of the murals Harazaki makes, the shirt creates the illusion that participants are standing within the artwork itself – Instagram ready. Art prints of three of the scenes from the exhibition will also be available to view and purchase by special order.

The immersive event unfolds at 214 Lincoln Blvd., in Venice, August 17-19. Hours are 5-11 p.m. Friday, 12 noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 12 noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.  A variety of live performances including music, DJs, hula hoop, and more will take place over the 3-day period.

SOVO// is a new quarterly, high-concept print magazine produced in a limited edition; art-and-music-oriented events launch each issue and half-issue.

  • Genie Davis; photos: provided by the artist 

 

 

 

 

Diverted Destruction: Found Objects Rediscovered as Art

Posted on by Diversions LA

36189242_10214894788670428_9152791623803863040_nAt Loft at Liz’s, gallerist Liz Gordon, above, presents an annual exhibition that is dear to her heart, one that is pivotal both in terms of the art itself, and as an aesthetic for the LA art community.

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The 11th annual Diverted Destruction exhibition, now at the La Brea gallery through August 20th,  is a continuation of this popular, provocative, and ultimately profound concept. Gordon offers her reasons for the exhibition – and more reasons for you to visit.

She originally conceived of the show from her “other” life as an antique dealer.

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“Throughout my 40 year career, I have had to decide on the value of millions of pieces that have come across my path.  It has always been a struggle when I know it is impossible for me to sell an item because it is broken or perhaps too new, or not my specialty, as to what to do with it,” she explains. “I have always had a section in the store labeled the ‘Artist Boxes,’ these items were always sold at a fraction of their price in order to encourage artists to use them,” she notes.

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Once Gordon became a curator and gallerist,  she began to accumulate these items and store them, ultimately conceiving the idea of her Diverted Destruction show.

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“This happened within the first year of starting the gallery,” she reports. “I have always had an affinity for found object, assemblage art.  I think now more than ever, we need to rethink how we deal with our garbage, and artists are the perfect people to inspire us.  We need to keep as much as we can on the land, In lieu of in it.”

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This show is a little different than previous incarnations. Gordon curated the show with only female artists this time around.

Her reason? “We continue to live in a ‘man’s world’….and look what they are doing and have done,” she exclaims. “It’s time we give women the platform and maybe, just maybe, the approach would be humanity first,” she states. “In addition the women are from a variety of cultural backgrounds: Mexican, Iranian, African American, Philippines, Chinese and American.” That inclusiveness reflects a larger theme for the exhibition.

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“This year, the theme within the medium is a sociological one dealing with the current human condition. The show has evolved throughout the years to encompass specific mediums,” she explains, as in past iterations, titled Diverted Destruction: The Paper Edition or The Fabric Edition

The work is always done with materials that are destined for, or found in the trash.

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“This show is relevant for all of us if you look at the materials, and realize that each of us walks to the garbage with things that can be reused,” Gordon enthuses. “Take the mesh bags that fruits and vegetables come in. Instead of ripping it open, cut it cleanly and it can be reused for so many purposes.  This is one small example.”

Gordon says her close personal connection to this exhibition makes it easy to curate. “It is an extension of what I do everyday in the store.  My appreciation for objects extends to the garbage.”

However, she is strongly aware of finding an underlying theme to add meaning and depth to these exhibitions. “This year, that took seeing Hai Wei Wei’s documentary Human Flow to inspire the theme The Human Condition.”

For Gordon, the film resonated on a number of different levels. “Those people who have found the courage to leave their homeland with virtually nothing but the shirt on their backs have no choice but to live on what is thrown away,” she asserts. “They have to have enormous resilience and resourcefulness in order to survive.”

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The feedback for this year’s show as well as for past exhibitions has always been positive; her generous offering of art materials from discarded items she’s collected over the course of a year is a highlight for many art-makers and those simply interested in finding treasure in another’s trash.

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“I used to just throw all the items on a table in a huge melange, but as of last year, I created an installation that is virtually a mini Liz’s Antique Hardware, equally as organized. Because of this order, the items resonate as something other than garbage.  I believe people are inspired and see their potential and their beauty.  We hang a sign in the store window saying ‘Free Art Materials.’  It literally stops traffic, so many young people are coming up to the gallery and taking things.” Gordon continues  to add items and change the installation throughout the run of the show.  “It continues to inspire me and those that partake in the offerings,” she adds.

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Gordon finds a link between the use of found objects, recycling, and creating new forms from old, with the mission of the artists she chose for this year’s show.

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Above and below, the work of Ching Ching Cheng.

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Above and below: haunting images from Camilla Taylor.

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“Each artist deals with the theme from their perspective, using recycled items to express their idea of the Human Condition. Ching Ching Chen deals with motherhood. Linda Vallejo did her work 10 years ago with images that continue to confront the same issues today: ecology, genocide, war.  Marjan Vayghan’s installation of a found-dollhouse represents the death sentence Iranian women are given upon marriage.

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“Alexandra Dillon’s portraits of refugee women (above) subjected to cruelty beyond our imagination, and Kathi Flood’s collage all deal with the current immigration issues,” Gordon attests.

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Diane Williams, above, also offers a strong invocation of the immigrant experience.

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Gordon suggests that to learn more about the artists and their use of materials, the upcoming Artist Talk this Wednesday the 8th, and a free Adult Workshop on the 11th, will both offer deeper insight into the meaning of the exhibition.

Upcoming Events:

Artist Talk, August 8th, 7-9pm

Free Adult Workshop, August 11th 1-4pm

Free Youth Workshop, August 18th 1-4pm

Closing Day August 20th

Loft at Liz’s is located at 453 S. La Brea in mid-city.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis