Two terrific group shows have started the summer season off right in LA.
Mon Dieu Project‘s sophomore exhibition, Absctract Adjacent, is a lovely, lush show that gets its title from being, in many cases, somewhat figurative, or at least elements of the figurative dance through this group show.
Shadowy white figures, both ephemeral and graceful, dance through the vivid red background of lustrous works from Nadege Monchera Baer, created with acrylic and colored pencil on Vellum. Baer’s pointillist style here is new to me as a long-time follower; but like past works, it is poetically perfect.
Lucas Biagini combines wax with oil paint to shape visceral, dimensional images that flow like colored lava.
DL Alvaraz offers surreal and colorful sci-fi shapes; working in graphite and colored pencil the effect of his color and medium is that of a collage. Jaehong Anh is more surreal still, Dali-esque, perhaps and texturally deep.
Eva Blue’s astonishing giclee on glass depictions of the Northern Lights, dazzles with color.
Rick Boling’s vivid crowd scenes, even blurred or dotted with confetti, edge toward the figurative with one eye on abstract wonder.
Christopher Kuhn devotes swirls and layers of acrylic and oil paint to creating ropey, fascinatingly complex abstract puzzles.
Jeffrey Nachtigall gives viewers a lavender sky and an alien space craft in his single work in this show, a glossy and absorbing mix of spray paint, latex, and acrylic.
Shadowy, nearly submerged images in more muted shades mark the work of Bernardo Montgomery, who works in mixed media on copper and steel here.
The exhibition just closed, but it will be exciting to see what’s next for the gallery, which is new by a few months to the LA art scene. The light filled space offers inventive, smartly conceptual work that feels bracingly fresh in the DTLA art scene. Abstract Adjacent is available for viewing online, here.
Also fresh in the summer heat, Shockboxx Gallery‘s group show, Summer Camp delights with a wild array of artists in full seasonal splendor. From the campy (yes, pun intended) to the haunting, from stunningly detailed landscapes to fuzzy textile sculptures, this exhibition is as welcome as a cold glass of lemonade (spike it if you’d like) on a hot day.
Eileen Oda’s large-scale “Spring Flowers” is a jaw-droppingly detailed field of poppies in a quintessentially Californian landscape that draws the viewer straight into the sunny meadow.
Aimee Mandala’s wonderfully mysterious glowing blue house in a dark wood, created in charcoal, is both elegaic and grand, a slice of summer memory.
Debbie Korbel delights with a hilarious Barbie narrative.
Emily Wallerstein’s perfectly detailed sunset pink desert sky and Joshua Tree in “Full Moon Covid Camping, Mojave Desert” is all ethereal light. From Amrta’s golden textural swirls to gallerist Mike Collins’ wittily subversive “The Buzzards Left, so it wasn’t me they were after,” there is something for everyone here.
Viewers will find an embroidered “Homeless Man’s Skewer” by Priscilla Vincent; a sensual oil painting from Celina Bernstein; a whimsical yet fraught paper bag enclosed figure from Isabella Fernanda and Lori Markman’s equally fraught ballpoint pen on paper monster in “I’ve Got My Eye On You.”
You better check in to this summer camp, no tent required, as the show ends July 2nd. You can also view many, but not all of the 39+ works on exhibit here.
Mon Dieu Projects is located at 720 E. 18th Street in DTLA, open 12-4 Tuesday-Saturday.
Shockboxx is located at 636 Cypress in Hermosa Beach and is open on weekends or by appointment.
- Genie Davis, Photos: Genie Davis